Arivu: from Cell to celluloid

Movie on Arivu is on the cards, says director S P Jananathan

J. Shanmugha Sundaram

Vellore:

If everything goes on well, you may get to see Arivu (A G Perarivalan), a life convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, and his story on screen in the near future, according to National Film Award winning Director S P Jananathan.

“I will make a movie on Arivu in the future. I will even make him act if  there is an opportunity and if he is interested in acting,” Jananathan, director of the recently released movie ‘Porampokku Engira Pothuvudamai’, told the Express after meeting Arivu in the Vellore Central Prison for Men on Thursday. He was accompanied by Arivu’s mother Aruputhammal.

A telephone conversation a week ago  between Arivu and Jananathan on the movie that touches the issue of death penalty and mental agony of death convicts led to Thursday’s meeting. During the conversation, Arivu had expressed his desire to meet the director.

This is not the first time the two are meeting in the prison. “I met Arivu when I had come to the prison with director Seeman earlier,” he added.

Though he has dealt with capital punishment in this movie starring actors Arya and Vijay Sethupathy, the meeting with Arivu has kindled further interest in him to do a movie on similar lines. There are many untold stories behind the walls of prisons, he pointed out.

“Arivu was impressed with the movie. He heard the story from the prison personnel, his mother and also read movie reviews in the newspapers. Though he did not see a single scene of the movie, he recalls the dialogues in the movie,” said the director, who won the National award in 2004 for the movie “Iyarkai” starring actor Shyam.

”Arivu told me that the movie has created an impact on the society and also changed the mindset of many about capital punishment. It helped him in particular and death convicts in general.” said the director, quoting Arivu.

If the movie had been released two years ago, Arivu felt that it could have bettered his chances for release as media reaches a large section of the society, he added.

The director feels that he never thought that the movie would make such an impact. “If I thought the movie would create such an impact, I would have put in little more hardwork into it,” he said.

Suggested Box: Arivu’s mother Aruputhammal said that his son is confident of winning his freedom very soon. He is having supreme faith in the judiciary.

“When I asked about his health and treatment, Arivu said he felt much better now,” said Ariputhammal.

She further said that the doctors at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital had asked him to come for further check-up next month and said that by then, he will win his legal battle to get back his freedom.

/eom/shan/