Actor Vijay’s comic slurs irk HC lawyers

CHENNAI: Kollywood stars appear to be star-crossed. After Khushboo and Suhasini, it is now the turn of actor Vijay to be in the dock. The Madras High Court Advocates' Association (MHAA) has demanded that screening of Vijay-starrer 'Sivakasi' be stopped within a week, since it allegedly "portrays lawyers in a bad light".

In Sivakasi, Vijay's Diwali release that has been keeping the box offices ringing, the hero's friend, played by M S Bhaskar, is a lawyer with too many stupidities and too few cases. The lawyer is shown as using law books as pillows and serving tea to Vijay, who plays the role of a welding worker.

"Lawyers are portrayed as jokers and idiots in the film," said Praveen, a second-year law student in Madurai who filed the case against the makers of the movie last week. A section of lawyers belonging to the MHAA took up the issue in Chennai on Tuesday and held demonstrations, even burning an effigy of Vijay.

The actor, now shooting for his movie, 'Aadi', in Visakhapatanam, Andhra Pradesh, has issued an apology. "I am just an actor and had to do what the director asked me to. However, if I have done anything to upset my lawyer friends, I am sorry for that," Vijay said in a statement.

But lawyers are in no mood to relent. "The screening of the film should be stopped within a week or we will initiate action against the actor, producer and director of the movie," the lawyers said.