| Muhammad bin Tughluq | |
|---|---|
Screenshot of the title as seen in the film |
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| Directed by | Cho |
| Produced by | Prestige Productions |
| Written by | Cho |
| Starring | Cho Neelu Peeli Sivam Manorama Ambi Rajagopal Sukumari Sampath V.R.Sreenivasan B.N.Ramasamy |
| Music by | M.S. Viswanathan |
| Release date(s) | 1971 |
| Running time | 134 min. |
| Country | India |
| Language | Tamil |
Muhammad bin Thughlaq (Tamil: முகமது பின் துக்ளக்) is a 1971 socio-political satire comedy film in Tamil by Cho Ramaswamy. It is the film version of the stageplay of the same name. Both the play and the film is conceptualized, wrote and directed by Cho who also stars as the titular character. The film is a sarcastic take on the then political and social affairs of India and is considered a fine portrayal of the political attitude existent till today.
The title and the titular character is an allusion to the present day politics in India, that can be compared with those of Tughluq's. It is believed in India that Muhammad bin Tughluq, the sultan of Delhi in 1300s was an unintelligent ruler, especially for some of his decisions during his reign, including that of relocating his capital and experiments with coins. Thus, Cho found it to be a correct allusion to the present day political happenings. There are several dialogues in the film that mention these facts.
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Thathachari (Neelu) narrates a small anecdote of Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq emphasizing on how the king had an arrogant attitude, indifferent view towards his kingdom and subjects, how he treated his guests and also the kind of plans he introduced that backfired. When his son Rangachari (Rajagopal) goes on a mission to research on Tughluq, he finds a buried coffin that contains Thugluq (Cho), and his accomplice Ibn Batuta(Peeli Sivam) alive inside. They claim that they are the true Thugluq and Batuta buried several centuries ago along with a herb that has protected them and kept them alive until 1968 A.D. (the present day of the film)
Thugluq becomes a national sensation and is welcomed in all grandeur to Rangachari's house. He is interviewed by many newspaper journalists to whom he answers in a very sarcastic attitude. He learns the changes of the past centuries in almost four days and mocks that the advancements are no more than four days' advancement. He decides to contest in elections to become the Prime Minister of India. In his good faith, Thanikachalam, an old freedom fighter, and his daughter Gandhimadhi (Manorama) volunteer to help taking part in his political rallies. In his political campaigns, Thughluq makes a mockery of all of the other politician contenstants (in turn mocking the politicians of real life) and in a satiric tone asking the people to vote for him.
Thugluq eventually wins the elections and forms a cabinet of ministers announcing that anyone who joins his party will become the Deputy Prime Minister. A total of 450 people join his party and all of them are made Deputy Prime Ministers. At the news being announced at radio the masses become very happy. A few people (like a tea shop owner and a hairdresser) even go as far as wagering and jumping with joy. The Rangachari family also become very overwhelmed at it.
Thugluq appoints the naive Gandhimadhi as one of his ministers. She initially does not understand the street-smart nature of the political world and shows an innocent face to the people she meets. Tughluq shows a self-opinionated attitude to the cabinet ministers and lends a deaf year to all their proposals. He instead makes foolish plans to tackle the country's problems that neither makes sense nor solve the problems in question. For example, to solve the problem of which language (whether South Indian or North Indian) should be the national language, he suggests a foreign language of Persian must be the language claiming that it is new to Indians and it will not be a partial decision for both parties. In an attempt to abolish bribery and corruption he legalizes them so that they do not become a problem. When there is a calamity for his decisions he makes a direct speech to the people through radio, to request peace and promises to look into the problem (which he ultimately does not intend to do).
Gandhimadhi slowly learns all the trickery of politics and gets indulged in bribery. She rises to a very pompous lifestyle as opposed to her previous poverty-ridden one. She is now able to take good care of a few children in her care and also celebrates her birthday in a lavish style. Venniradai Moorthy plays a cameo as a singer in her birthday party. Her father (Thankikachalam) gets bedridden and is dying. When Gandhimadhi comes down to meet him he hands her over a letter, and asks her to deliver it to Thugluq or Batuta on December 31 that year. He further says that herself or anyone else must not read this letter and must be given to Thugluq with utmost secrecy. She promises him on it. He eventually dies.
Back in Delhi, Thugluq and Batuta have a small talk in solitude. In a twist ending, it is revealed that both are actually college students (Mahadevan and Raghavan), who in an interest to reform the country have acted as Thugluq and Batuta. Both with the help of their guru Thanikachalam, took an oath before Goddess Kali that they would surrender themselves of their crime, on December 31 before the people. They hid themselves in a coffin on the site in Daulatabad, where Prof. Rangachari would take up his research, and start impersonating from there on. They believed that after this incident, the people would contemplate on this matter and cause a revolution that would change the state of affairs to come. However Mahadevan alias Thugluq suggests that they maintain the status quo and live a prosperous life for themselves. Mahadevan, corrupt through his exposure to politics now refuses to accept that he is Mahadevan and still calls himself Thugluq. However Raghavan (alias Batuta) is now stubborn on revealing their true colours.
Raghavan approaches Gandhimadhi to get the letter, her father gave her. The letter is a written confession of the details of the trio's plan signed by Mahadevan himself and posted to Thanikachalam. This letter is now the only evidence to reveal Thugluq's true colours. However, Gandhimadhi, now knowing the ways of the world, refuses to hand over the letter because, if she does even she will be in trouble for supporting both of them. She instead throws the letter into the hearth. Raghavan attempts to explain everything to the cabinet ministers and later to the masses, however, Thugluq states that his "good friend" Batuta has gone insane suddenly and asks everyone not to believe him. He further tricks the people, through his words, to kill Batuta, with whom dies their secret.
Cho Ramaswamy as Muhammad bin Tughluq/Mahadevan
Peeli Sivam as Ibn Batuta/Raghavan
Manorama as Gandhimadhi
Neelu as Thathachari
Ambi as Rangachari
Veniradai Moorthy as the singer in birthday party (cameo appearance)
The inspiration of the film is derived directly from the success of the 1968 drama of the same name. The film follows the same basic storyline of the drama version with only a few additions to suit the cinematic setting. The film was meant for a larger audience as opposed to the drama which only was hosted in a few drama theatres in Chennai. It was fairly low-budgeted for the time and also had a few notable actors. The film was a ear-splitting success, especially in satire genre and is considered one of the best political satires. Also the film along with the drama is considered one of the best works of Cho and is remembered by the audience till today.