Chennai: Governance briefly took a back seat on Thursday as the ruling establishment —including Tamil Nadu assembly speaker J C D Prabhakar, senior minister K A Sengottaiyan and several of his younger cabinet colleagues — queued up for the first day first show (FDFS) of chief minister C Joseph Vijay’s film Jana Nayagan.Sengottaiyan led a rally to a theatre in his native Erode district and distributed laddus to fans who came to watch the movie. In Pudukottai, labour welfare minister J Mohamed Farvas was seen wiping away tears during the screening, while prohibition minister K Vignesh was seen weeping in Coimbatore.Water resources minister N Anand, a long-time confidant of Vijay, watched the film with health minister K G Arunraj at a Chennai theatre. “It was emotional for all of us to watch the CM onscreen as this is his last film,” Arunraj said after the movie. He, along with Anand and fisheries minister Srinath, made cameo appearances in the movie.Natural resources minister T K Prabhu was seen in a video pasting Jana Nayagan stickers on house doors and auto-rickshaws. Backward classes minister V Sampathkumar who watched the movie in Coimbatore, said it was both the first show and final show for them. “There is pain in our hearts, but we accept it because our leader is needed by the state and its people to run an efficient govt,” he said. His cabinet colleagues K Vignesh, V Sampath Kumar and M Vijay Bhalaji too appeared visibly emotional as they watched the movie with their supporters.“The movie is screened in more than 1,000 theatres and Tamils across the world were eagerly waiting for the movie,” said speaker Prabhakar before stepping into a theatre on Anna Salai in Chennai.The move invited criticism from TVK’s political opponents, who said that it was insensitive to watch a movie and post videos when the state is facing multiple issues, from NEET protests to Cauvery water shortage. AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami called the TVK administration the “new Nero govt”, alleging that it remained indifferent to people’s suffering. “Instead of addressing people’s problems, CM and ministers are busy posting selfies after attending the FDFS of Jana Nayagan,” he said.Arunraj defended the ministers’ actions, saying that govt acknowledges the problems and is taking efforts to solve them. “All problems cannot be solved in a single day,” he said. As most of the ministers had left for their hometowns to watch the movie, the Secretariat wore a deserted look.Vijay’s fans too celebrated the film release with the usual milk abhishekams across the state. A fan ate ‘mann soru’, a ritual of eating food from the floor, while a few walked on their knees for the success of the movie.Vijay watched the premiere of his film on Wednesday night along with chief secretary Sai Kumar and several senior bureaucrats.
