When prime minister Narendra Modi made the surprise announcement Thursday that notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denominations will no longer be legal from midnight, it was a déjà vu moment for many Tamil film viewers. We have seen this somewhere, they all thought.
Soon, that particular scene from recent film Pichaikkaran (Beggar), directed by Sasi and starring Vijay Antony in the lead, went viral on social media.
In the scene from the movie, we see an FM radio station discussion on how to eradicate poverty, and especially begging, from India.
The radio jockey gets a call from a beggar, whose suggestions on how India can be made a beggar-free country, will stun you – when you compare it with what our PM suggested.
Here's what the beggar says: “There is only one way to wipe off beggars – scrap Rs 500 and 1,000 notes. Our country suffers from corruption, black money, fake currency and people involved in these malpractices deal with Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. About 20 percent of India's population have majority of these two denominations in their hands. The remaining 80 percent have only one or two notes of Rs 500 and 1,000 with them”.
“When the rich can't keep their unaccounted assets in denominations of Rs 100 as it is practically difficult, they have no other way but to deposit them in banks paying tax. Poverty will be done away with, there won't be anymore beggars in India,” he says.
Even though the movie scene goes a bit over the board, one can't help but be wonder-struck by the fact that PM Modi's path-breaking plan to fight corruption is almost the same.
Pichaikkaran was released in March this year and 8 months later, PM Modi scrapped Rs 500 and 1,000 notes.
We are curious. Sasi and Vijay Antony, did you meet the prime minister to discuss this?