Malayalam movie 'Lucifer' has now courted a controversy as an association of Kerala Police has objected to a poster that shows lead actor Mohanlal stamping his foot on the chest of actor John Vijay who plays the role of a police officer.
In the complaint, the Kerala Police Association stated that the poster sends out a wrong message. Coming to the point, we can't help but wonder, is it for the very first time? And the answer is undoubtedly a big no! And yes, we have proofs for this.
Case No 1
Mohanlal's 1999 movie 'Olympiyan Anthony Adam' written and directed by Bhadran is the perfect example for this. There is a scene where the characters of Mohanlal and Spadikam George furiously disagree over an issue. Though George played a higher officer's role in the movie, Mohanlal pushes him back and lays his foot on his chest. Ditto to what we saw in Lucifer!
Case No 2
The scene this time is between between Mohanlal and 'Spadikam' George again in the movie Spadikam (1995) where the former plays a local gangster and the latter is a cop. After the cop tortures him in jail, Aadu Thoma played by Mohanlal manages to capture him and gives him back beating in all the way possible. Note the point, the cop was in kakhi itself!
Case No 3
The movie this time is Praja (2001) and the actors here are Mohanlal and Baburaj. While one is an ex-underworld don, the other one is a cop. In fact the story takes a turn with a particular scene where the don is seen beating Joseph Madachery, the IG of police, brutally in full public view. This infuriates the cops and they hatch a conspiracy to trap the protagonist. It wasn't just one cop but a posse of men in khaki were looking on when the don thrashed the top cop mercilessly!
Case No 4
Have a look at the top movie that broke all box office records of Mollywood – Pulimurugan (2016)? Remember the forest ranger R. K, played by Kishore. The cop here tries to molest Murgan's wife and Murugan makes him realise that wearing the khaki uniform is not enough and the scene literally had cheering response at theatres. Why no noise during that time?
Case No 5
We have Mohanlal and Siddique from the movie Ravanaprabhu. “...Enthada chellekumbol orthilla nee aanpillerude kaiyil vannu veezhum enn... (Didn't you realise while haranguing that you will come into the hands of men like us?)” says Siddhique's cop character to which Mohanlal stares and throws an unburnt cigarette on his face. “Nee enne kond cheyyikum..,” (You are making me do this) responds Mohanlal and beats him in public in uniform. Was that cool?
Moral of the story: Well, the question that arises here is why 'Lucifer' is being drawn into unnecessary controversy when this is not the first time that Mollywood has seen such scenes. In 'Lucifer', the particular scene happens when the cop raises his hands on a kid. No doubt Mohanlal acquired a demi-god status among Malayali film audience as he played several larger-than-life characters onscreen that thrilled viewers and none can deny it, not even Kerala Police. Just remember that!
