Newspaper reports about torture and deaths in police custody may be forgotten and can seem so disconnected from our daily lives. But the power of visual images can provide a lasting impression.
Vetrimaaran’s Visaranai does just that. The film — which was recognized as the Best Film on Human Rights by the Italian chapter of Amnesty International at the Venice International Film festival — leaves you disturbed, making you confront the flaws in the system today.
What makes Visaranai (Interrogation) hard-hitting is the core plot, which has been borrowed from a real tale.
While the first half is largely inspired from M. Chandrakumar’s biography, Lock Up, the second half is fiction written by Vetrimaaran.
So what happens to four Tamilian labourers who find work in neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh and are wrongly arrested by the local police? Despite their innocence, they are kept in custody and put through intimidation and torture, only to eventually become pawns in the hands of the police.
Vetrimaaran builds his narrative and viewers are flummoxed, just like Pandi and his three friends, when beaten up inside a lock-up. Could it be because of Pandi’s love for the servant girl in the cop’s house?
Then Vetrimaran lashes out the truth. The police, under pressure to close a robbery case, make scapegoats of the four men. If Pandi and friends found the Andhra Pradesh police force deadly, it does not take them long to realise that their release from Andhra Pradesh to Chennai is akin to falling from the frying pan into the fire. Not all cops are bad, though. A woman constable lets Pandi make a call on her phone. Every time Pandi sees hope, viewers breathe a sigh of relief — but are caught again in despondency.
Visaranai is Vetrimaaran’s third film after Polladhavan (2007) and the National award-winning Aadukalam. He scores again with his taut screenplay.
The film begins beautifully, promising a new dawn as Pandi (Attakathi Dinesh) opens the corner store where he works.
Just then a mother dog with her pup runs up and he throws a biscuit that the pup catches.
There is a cute love story brewing in the background, but there is no room for trivialities. The narrator’s sole aim is to bare the corruption in the police force and how the law is bent to protect political patrons.
Visaranai rests on the shoulders of a brilliant cast and each one of them has proved right for the role. If Dinesh’s Pandi and his three friends win your empathy, newcomer Ajay Ghoshal, as the police chief of Andhra Pradesh, stuns with his natural portrayal.
Pandi is a fighter till the very end with his values intact despite torture. Dinesh matches pace well with the talented Samuthrakani, who plays Muthuvel, a cop entrusted by the big boss on a mission, Samuthrakani conveys a lot through his eyes, especially those scenes when he is at conflict with his own conscience. Not to forget Kishore’s remarkable performance as an auditor who is kidnapped by the police.
G.V. Prakash’s music strikes the right chord. Cinematographer Ramalingam makes every scene real and happening. Most of the scenes linger long.
Visaranai is a film that will always come to the fore whenever good cinema is discussed.
