Malayalam movie Pada’s actual Collector lives in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: Movies based on real life incidents can always rekindle public dialogue on the particular incident. Malayalam writer-director Kamal KM’s recent flick, ‘Pada’, streaming on Amazon Prime, is doing exactly that now, steering cinematic and political discussion domains towards a 1996 incident in Kerala, of the Palakkad District Collector being taken hostage by purported Maoists.

The then Collector, WR Reddy, played by Arjun Radhakrishnan in the movie, now lives in Hyderabad and nearly 26 years after the incident, Reddy has a twist to offer to the entire episode, which had four men taking him captive in the Collectorate, demanding immediate withdrawal of a Kerala Assembly bill seeking to legalise transactions involving Adivasi land.

The four political extremists, who said they were members of the then unknown outfit Ayyankali Pada and wanted restoration of rights of Adivasis, had announced to the media after releasing Reddy that they managed the nine-hour hostage situation on October 4, 1996 using just a toy gun and wire wound around pipes brandished as bombs.

“Truth is that they had a real pistol, and explosives too, possibly ammonium nitrate. They had triggered an explosion during the incident, but the claim of fake weapons, which the media latched on to, changed the narrative. The four men claimed the gun to be fake because their lives were at stake and they had to escape. Because they were offered a safe passage out, no one checked their bags. There was no further validation,” Reddy recalls, sitting in his Narsingi home, partially modeled on Kerala’s famous Laurie Baker style homes and with a tinge of vintage in the form of an open courtyard in the middle.

“Journalism failed miserably there. Some politicians, who came into my chambers immediately after the incident, also hijacked the story in a different direction, raising slogans that it was a conspiracy against the government. There were even reports that said I was from Warangal, that I had Maoist links and knew about the hostage drama beforehand, all baseless stories. I’m actually from Kurnool, and I was doing a lot of work for tribals while posted in Kannur before Palakkad. And I do not support the armed action method. In fact, it was based on my complaint that an FIR was registered and the police later tracked down and arrested three of them,” Reddy said.

Reddy, who took charge in Palakkad barely a month before the incident, was soon transferred to Kollam. The three-month Palakkad stint had its share of stress on him.

“I was even asked for an explanation. It was a turbulent period,” the Kerala cadre IAS officer remembers, adding that he however was never discriminated against, and was enabled to work with full potential in his later assignments, which included with the Kerala Water Authority, Milma, as Director (Tribal Welfare), Secretary (Forests) and Principal Secretary (Taxes) and finally, as Additional Chief Secretary.

Reddy, who retired recently as Director, NIRD here, is now chairman of the Ministry of Panchayat Raj’s National Capacity Building Framework committee.

“An empathetic approach, stressing on education that will see their future generations empowered, can work for tribals,” he says, adding that the movie was brilliantly researched, 99.9 percent realistic and did justice to the incident.

“I was actually skeptical about the movie and saw it reluctantly. I was apprehensive whether there was masala added and whether the institution of the Collector, not about Reddy, was protected. But I was impressed. Kamal did a beautiful job, and Arjun Radhakrishnan did really well,” he added.