Visaranai

Visaaranai

Theatrical Poster
Directed by Vetrimaaran
Produced by Dhanush
Vetrimaaran (uncredited)
Written by Vetrimaaran
Story by original story by
M. Chandrakumar
additional story by
Vetrimaaran
Based on Lock Up 
by M. Chandrakumar
Starring Dinesh
Anandhi
Aadukalam Murugadoss
Samuthirakani
Music by G. V. Prakash Kumar
Cinematography S. Ramalingam
Edited by Kishore Te.
co-editor
G. B. Venkatesh
Production
company
Distributed by Lyca Productions
Release dates
  • 12 September 2015 (2015-09-12) ( Venice )
  • 5 February 2016 (2016-02-05) ( India )
Running time
 118 minutes
Country India
Language Tamil

Visaranai (English: Interrogation) is a 2015 Indian Tamil-language docudrama crime thriller film written and directed by Vetrimaaran based on the novel Lock Up by M. Chandrakumar. Featuring Dinesh, Anandhi and Aadukalam Murugadoss in the lead roles, the film deals with police brutality, corruption, and loss of innocence in the face of injustice.

The film premiered in the Orrizonti (Horizons) section of the 72nd Venice Film Festival,[1] where it won the Amnesty International Italia Award.[2] The film was released in India on 5 February 2016 and received highly positive reviews from both critics and audience alike.[3][4] Many debates opened up regarding film in Tamil Nadu.[5] At the 63rd National Film Awards, the film won three honours: Best Feature Film in Tamil, Best Supporting Actor for Samuthirakani and Best Editing for Kishore Te.

Cast

Plot

Pandi (Dinesh Ravi), Murugan (Aadukalam Murugadoss), Afzal (Silambarasan Rathnasamy), Kumar (Pradheesh Raj) are homeless Tamil labours working in Andhra Pradesh spending their time living in parks and working to make ends meet. Their life takes a turn for worse when they are caught, beaten and tortured for a theft they did not commit due to police's need to close the case. They later get help from a Tamil police man (Samuthirakani) who gets them out. Later Samuthirakani enlists their help to kidnap a high profile accountant (Kishore) who handles the black money accounts of the opposition party. This is done because the Assistant Commissioner has taken money of 2 crores from the ruling party to use Kishore in court and take down the opposition party. Meanwhile, the D.C.P. is on the side of the opposition party and convinces the A.C.P. to play a double game and get 3 crores from the opposition party as well. However, the opposition party fears that Kishore gave up their secrets and orders the D.C.P. to interrogate him during that he accidentally dies. The cops present there discuss on how to cover up the mess all of which is heard by Pandi and Afzal. The cops fearing being publicly outed, frame Pandi and his friends as wanted A.T.M. robbers and encounter them. They also trap and encounter Samuthirakani too who was against this idea of a cover up in order to create sympathy for the police force among the public. Only the portion in Andhra (the first half) is said to be real while the rest is fictional.

Production

The film was adapted from novel titled Lock up, written by M. Chandrakumar, an auto rickshaw driver in Coimbatore.[1] Vetrimaaran choosed to begin the film before the schedule for his other venture Vada Chennai (2016) and signed up actors Attakathi Dinesh and Aadukalam Murugadoss to play convicts in the film. The film earlier had the working titles of Kutravaali and Lock-Up, during the first schedule in Guindy.[6] The first half of the film was finished completely in September 2014 in locations across Hyderabad.[7] The director later announced that the film would be an experimental film lasting only 60 minutes.[8] Anandhi joined the cast as heroine in October 2014, being selected after Vetrimaran was impressed with her performance in his production venture, Poriyaalan (2014) and Prabhu Solomon's Kayal (2014).[9] Telugu film actor Ajay Ghosh stated that he played the role of an inspector in the film and would appear throughout the first half.[10]

Critical reception

IndiaGlitz.com had rated the film 4.5 out of 5 and said, "Visaranai is by no means only an art or docu film, but fits into the commercial arena as well as it has thrills, especially a nail biting climax, humour, action, a little painful love story in the background and above all filled with real life incidents which one can easily relate to".[11] Twitch Film viewed Visarnai as a top class film about reality comparable to 2012 Cannes favourite Gangs of Wasseypur.[12] The Hindu wrote "Visaranai is beautifully filmed, though there isn't much room for beauty. The frames appear to have been snatched from the back alleys of life. The verité illusion is aided by the utterly lifelike performances—even if the word “performance” seems wrong.".[13] Rediff wrote "Director Vetrimaaran deserves credit for having extracted the best from all his actors. They are so remarkable you sense their terror as they stutter and stumble with their broken and bruised bodies. The hard-hitting screenplay is relentless, making no effort to shield you from the harsh realities of the ruthless world we live in today."[14] Behindwoods wrote "Some may call Visaranai to be a violent film, while most of the others may say it is a brilliant piece of art that is so real and suspenseful. But if you’re a fan of crime thriller or film that depicts pain, do not miss it!"[15]

Awards

63rd National Film Awards

References

  1. 1 2 Hebbar, Prajakta (8 September 2015). "Meet The Auto Driver Who Wrote The Novel That Inspired Tamil Film 'Visaranai', Premiering At Venice". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  2. ↑ "Collateral Awards of the 72nd Venice Film Festival". Venice Biennale. 12 September 2015.
  3. ↑ KollyTalk (25 January 2014). "'Visaranai release postponed to Feb 5th". KollyTalk.com. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  4. ↑ Share on Twitter (8 August 2014). "'Soodhadi' with Dhanush, another with Dinesh: Vetrimaran Movie Review, Trailer, & Show timings at Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  5. ↑ "Sagayam take on police creates stir". Times of India. Retrieved 18 February 2016.
  6. ↑ "Vetrimaaran convicts actors Dinesh and Murugadoss". Behindwoods.com. 14 August 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  7. ↑ "Vetrimaaran and Attakathi Dinesh are busy !". Behindwoods.com. 4 October 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  8. ↑ "60-minutes experimental film by Vetrimaran". Live Chennai. 30 September 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  9. ↑ "Vetrimaran's next is Visaranai". Chennaivision.com. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  10. ↑ "Working with Vetrimaaran was inspiring: Ajay Ghosh". Business Standard. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  11. ↑ "Visaranai review. Visaranai Tamil movie review, story, rating - IndiaGlitz.com". IndiaGlitz. Retrieved 18 February 2016.
  12. ↑ "Truth will never set you free". twitchfilm.com. Retrieved 18 February 2016.
  13. ↑ "Visranai, a powerful chilling drama". The Hindu. Retrieved 18 February 2016.
  14. ↑ http://www.rediff.com/movies/report/review-visaranai-is-chilling/20160207.htm
  15. ↑ http://behindwoods.com/tamil-movies/visaranai/visaranai-review.html

External links

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