S. P. Jananathan became a director after crossing the age of 40. The first film was Shaam, a naturalistic role played by little Radhika. He took this love story from Russian literature. The nature of the sea and the life of seafaring sailors captivated the audience with a unique storyline. E was released bearing that expectation.
E stands for Easwaran, the hero of the film. He has only his grandmother as his own. His abode is the slums of the city on the outskirts of the town. He thinks that money is God. He does not hesitate to do any harm for money.
He also befriends Jyoti, a bar dancer from the same area. Jyoti tries to correct Easwaran. Meanwhile, Nellai Mani tries to kill doctor Ramakrishnan.
Iswaran saves Nelly by keeping Mani under his protection. His plan is to get money from Ramakrishnan by handing Nellie the bell. In this case, the conversation with Nellai Mani changes Iswaran’s mind. Ramakrishnan learns that the patients who come to him are being used as laboratory rats for testing new drugs. Ishwar’s grandmother and Jyoti’s younger sister are also affected.
When Nellai Mani dies, Easwaran takes revenge on Ramakrishnan as his unstoppable trap. This will be the first and only film released on the concept of illegally drug testing patients. When the film came out, this story was the advertisement for the film. If this story was in the hands of someone like Shankar, they would have added grandeur to the scenes and taken it to another level. SB Jananathan had only done what the story required.
His slip up in this made Ramakrishnan look like a villain. India has been a testing ground for pharmaceutical companies for decades. These experiments are being conducted in India with the consent of the patients, who have paid huge sums of money. Although it appears to be legal in name, all the internal affairs involved are illegal.
Doctors and drug companies who do these things have social prestige and political power. They don’t exist as villains in society like in E movies. It would have been even better if E had skinned this fact.
Exploiting people’s poverty and using them as laboratory rats to test new drugs is still common in third world countries. Even now, 64 African children have died after drinking coffee syrup made in India.
The central government has not yet taken any action against the Indian company that manufactured the drug. There was no major international condemnation or legal action.
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Had E reflected this practical reality as well, it would have been a timeless film. 2006 October 20, 2006: E completes 16 years since its release on the same day.
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