The Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) is aghast that the hit Rajnikanth movie 'Kabali' seem to promote the idea it is okay for the main protagonist to be a gangster, as long as he is a philanthropist who does not deal in drugs and prostitution.

"But the disconcerting fact is that Kabali kept killing in the movie and the message imparted is that criminal activities are alright as long as a person is a philanthropist," said CAP president SM Mohamed Idris in a statement yesterday.

He said CAP is concerned that the movie may teach our impressionable youths that:

• It is all right to be a gangster as long as you run philanthropic programmes or disguise them as corporate social responsibility (CSR).
   
• Instead of being rejected by the people, you earn respect and live a flamboyant life style.
   
• Malaysian police are crooks as the movie suggested.
   
• Gangsterism and violence are endorsed by our political leaders and supporters who attended the premier on July 21, 2016.

Though he reasoned that probably because the movie was largely shot in Malaysia, it became the first Tamil movie to be dubbed into Bahasa Malaysia and screened widely.

"This is going to propagate the fallacious Malaysian values to even wider audiences," warned the CAP president.

CAP warned that the movie promotes Malaysia negatively by exposing more of our youths to a glamorous life of crime, revenge, and violence when ironically, we are trying so hard to clamp down on gangsterism and violence.

And although the Film Censorship Board had requested an alteration in the movie to insert a “moral lesson that crime does not pay”, the more influential bulk of violence in the movie buries this little lesson, argued CAP.

"CAP demands for a complete ban of all movies that embody sex and violence because they do not serve any lesson in morality but leading the society towards decadence," it concluded.

The hit movie which was shot mostly in Malaysia with appearances by local actors was released in both Tamil and dubbed into the national language, widely screened and received almost RM12 million box office takings in one week.

Moviegoers are divided over being impressed by superstar Rajnikath's latest action flick and worry over the violent undertones and seeming promotion of gangsterism.