'The one who employs you is your employer, not your owner', begins a powerfully worded statement by filmmaker Vidhu Vincent, who has come out in support of actor Manju Warrier, who had the other day, raised a complaint with the police against filmmaker Shrikumar Menon.
Manju’s complaint said that she feared her life was under threat from the director of Odiyan. Manju played the female lead opposite Mohanlal in Odiyan, which was Shrikumar’s first feature film. When the film failed, Shrikumar had blamed Manju for not promoting it enough. In her complaint, Manju has alleged that she was subjected to vicious and organised trolling at Shrikumar's behest and also accused him of misusing money held by her foundation.
Soon after news of Manju’s complaint came, Shrikumar wrote a long post addressed to ‘dear Manju’, recounting the times he has helped her when she needed help. It was through an ad he directed that Manju came back to show biz after a gap of 14 years. The post chided Manju for being 'thankless' and reminded her of instances when she and her family were grateful to Shrikumar for his help.
Vidhu and others like dubbing artiste Bhagya Lakshmi came out in support of Manju.
Vidhu retorts to Shrikumar’s claims, “We can guess how feudalistic one is if he considers that it is to a space he created, that Manju returned after a small gap from cinema. Everyone has the right to work and live with self-respect. Like anyone else, Manju has the right to decide when to stop working or make a comeback, what job to do and whom to do it with.”
It is Manju’s skills that helped her come back to cinema and took her to these heights, Vidhu asserts. “All the ownership and credit for it only belongs to Manju. Mister Shrikumar, didn’t you know that the old slave-owner system is no more? Or are you resting on an armchair rubbing on oil in your old ancestral home?” she teases.
Bhagya Lakshmi doesn’t mince her words either, she calls Shrikumar’s long post ‘pure rumours’.
“He says he is the one who gave her a second life and she hasn’t been grateful for it,” she writes of the many complaints Shrikumar had listed. “It looks like a malicious post made by those people who have no life. Very sub-standard,” Bhaygya Lakshmi comments in her long post. She says she can understand why Manju didn’t want his friendship anymore, seeing the way he has written about her.
“If not you, someone else would have made Manju act. It is Lohithadas and Sundardas that first made Manju a heroine. By your logic, they too should claim they gave life to Manju. Who are you to give life, Brahma?” Bhagya Lakshmi further comments that it would be very difficult to carry on with a friend who constantly claims he ‘made you this and that’. She advises Shrikumar to move on if a friend or partner breaks up with him instead of insulting and threatening her.