Canadian Tamil Congress meets Funny Boy Film Director Deepa Mehta

The Canadian Tamil Congress met with film director Ms. Deepa Mehta, and Dr. Cheran Rudhramoorthy, special consultant to the film, to understand the dynamics at play in relation to this film. Previously a Canadian Tamil Congress representative was also invited to watch the movie in a special screening. Our conversation primarily focused on three areas which are summarized below and based on the understandings we have as a result of the aforementioned meeting.

 The nature of the political commentary in the film Funny Boy

According to both Ms. Mehta and Dr. Rudhramoorthy the storytelling is in line with the book written by Shyam Selvadurai, on which this movie is based. Furthermore, the movie does justice to the book and the historical record in accurately portraying the factual nature of the 1983 Sri Lankan government sponsored pogrom against Tamils in Sri Lanka.

 Incorrect phonetic renditions of Tamil

During our conversation, Ms. Mehta mentioned that she was aware of the problematic nature of the spoken Tamil in the film, and that past efforts to correct this had been stalled because of the pandemic and various other factors. Ms. Mehta also noted that while the trailer was produced with the unacceptable spoken Tamil, the required audio changes are currently underway to rectify the phonetic mistakes throughout the film and the final movie will be released with the changes implemented.

 The casting of non-Tamil actors for the film

Ms. Mehta told us that the casting took over 1 year to complete and through the advising of various key film industry players in the Tamil Canadian community she was able to do casting calls with multiple Tamils of which 2 were chosen for leading roles.  Unfortunately, both of these two actors were unable to follow through with fulfilling their duties due to various conflicts.  This information was verified with the community film consultant Lenin M. Sivam.

To conclude, the Canadian Tamil Congress is keen to support projects–whether artistic or otherwise -including the film Funny Boy that give voice to the lived experiences of our community. Our interest lies in ensuring discussion of this film is informed by the appropriate context.

For more information, please contact: Canadian Tamil Congress @ (416) 240-0078.