Faux pas! It’s Morgan in Kovai, not Mandela

Coimbatore: The person who put up a poster dedicated to the late Nelson Madela was profusely apologetic when it was pointed out that the picture on the billboard was that of the actor Morg­an Freeman, who ironically had played the icon Mandela in the movie on rugby Invictus (2009). 

The cloth merchant had hit upon a good idea. In paying homage to the ‘Lion of Africa’, he had exhorted politicians not to think only of themselves in the next poll but to be proud they had lived in the same era as the slayer of Apart­heid and uniter of the rainbow nation, South Africa.

The poster that is what they are called in a state famous for posters political, cinema and otherwise has been erected on a roadside in the Manchester of South India, Coimbatore. It is part of memorials across India and the world to Mandela, who died on December 5.

Freeman’s face is seen with a delectable smile dom­inating smaller images of rights icons Martin Lut­her King Jr, Mother Teresa and Mahatma Gandhi.

“We will replace it with the correct picture of Mandela,” Chandrasekhar told a news agency over the phone. He had no clue as to how the faux pas happened, but he may have inadvertently placed greater emphasis on his message to Indian politicians as the poster spread like a virus on Twitter.

Bombarded with calls, the person whose number was displayed on the billboard chose to switch off his mobile even as a nation which declared 5-day mourning for Mandela was given lighthearted moments. 

In the movie Invictus, Morgan plays Mandela who eggs Afrikaner captain, Francois Pienaar, to win the world Cup for a united South Africa, a Mandela dream that also became reality in 1995.