A poster of the movie

With virtually no arrow left in the quiver, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is banking on a Hindi political movie, Lal Sarkar, to help it defeat the Left Front in the forthcoming Assembly election in Tripura scheduled for February, reported The Print.

The movie, a scathing comment on the Manik Sarkar government, will hit the screens by January-end, sources said. The Left Front ruled Tripura goes to polls next month.

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Made with the backing of the BJP, the name of the movie was finalized after many deliberations, the sources said. The party will use this movie as a tool to criticize the programmes and policies of the CPI-M government.

While officially, BJP is avoiding any direct link with the film, party insiders say that the film is crucial to its game plan in the State.

The clean image of Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar is something that the BJP has been unable to give a counter-argument to, the sources said, adding that the movie will help the party create a ‘different narrative’ about the state-of-affairs in Tripura.

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“Cinema is a powerful tool and many things could be said through it. It leaves an imprint on people like no other medium. We are just trying to portray the situation in Tripura through a feature film,” said a source associated with the movie.

Asked if the movie would carry a disclaimer about the characters bearing no relation to living persons, the source ruled out such a possibility. However, those associated with the movie claim that their work is apolitical.

Lal Sarkar will have subtitles in Bengali and Kokborok, the tribal language of Tripura.

Produced by Hashtag Films, the 105-minute film will focus on issues such as poverty, unemployment, women’s safety, political murders, trafficking, MGNREGA scam, smuggling of prescription drugs like cough syrups among others.