PMK-owned TV channel to air controversial soap

Chennai, July 27 (IANS) A Tamil TV channel owned by the PMK party is set to air yet another controversial serial based on a real life incident involving former chief minister M.G. Ramachandran.

The serial, 'Marakka Mudiyumaa?' (Can it be forgotten?), is based on a shooting incident in 1967 that left the late thespian, AIADMK founder leader MGR partially speech-impaired but also resulted in catapulting the DMK party to power.

Late actor M.R. Radha, father of Tamil media baron and actress Raadhika Sarath Kumar, actor-turned politician Radha Ravi and late M.R.R. Vasu, shot at MGR in 1967.

The pistol used by him contained bullets that were almost duds wounding the star in the neck, according to P. Chandra Sekharan, the forensic expert who had deposed in the court leading to conviction of the accused.

Radha spent nearly eight years in prison and after his release produced a film whose title roughly translates into English as 'Indeed I shot (at) him!'

However, after serving his sentence, he turned a devout Hindu as are his children.

Radha was a personal friend of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi.

Ironically, Radha's both surviving offspring are now politically pitted against Karunanidhi as are the channel's owners.

The title of the serial is the same as that of a 1960s' classic whose script and lyrics were penned by Karunanidhi.

The PMK-owned Makkal TV had recently serialised a controversial mini-series on forest brigand Veerappan, killed in a police shootout in 2004, to which his widow had raised serious objections.