Visaaranai

Another sensational movie from Dhanush K. Raja, the producer of 'The Crow's Egg' that I recently reviewed in this site. This time he joined the hands with the writer, director who bought him a best actor award at the Indian Academy Award for the movie 'Playground'. The film was based on the novel 'Lock Up' that loosely inspired by the experiences of the author who is an autorickshaw driver now.

I already mentioned that Indian cinema is waking up, knocking the doors of the international film critics, films festivals and film buffs. Thanks to the young generation in the film industry, looking for the international market expansion. It's time for you to check it out some of the Indian parallel cinemas, not the masala films. If you think you're totally in an unfamiliar territory, then it will be good to you start with this one.

India is like the European Union, where each nation speaks a different language and its own culture, likewise each Indian state has a different language and culture. That's why it might be called the Indian subcontinent. This story begins when three Tamil labourers who are illegally living in a city park to save rent money from the work in the neighbor state Andhra, will be taken to the police custody without letting know them the reason. The rest of the film exposes the law enforcement agency's brutality on these young innocent men to force to accept a crime that is not committed by them which is a violation of human rights.

"The influence is more important than skill when it comes to promotions."

The film has two phases and they were not focused on any particular characters. It is a couple of different events based flick that connected to each other by the characters. But everything is about corruption in the police force and common people who affected by that. Kind of unpredictable scenes with the decent twists. The first half takes place in Andhra Pradesh with the backdrop of some robbery case and then in the next half it moves to Tamil Nadu with once again a cop tale, but different scenario.

Welcome to the Indian police's torture chamber. The dark side of the Indian police force. Not all about the bad cops, but also involves those honest ones caught between dishonest ones from the higher power. There was a small romance plot in the opening, later it vanished when entire story focus shifted to police interrogation. The pace had many up and down, that helped to turn things around like transforming from one state of condition to another.

This theme was exactly opposite to the old saying 'lightning never strikes the same place twice'. You can call it a bad luck, but for some people like the youngsters from this movie who came from the poor families from the rural without proper education, it is a matter of life and death and injustice. I won't be surprised if international remake are made. It won this year's Indian Academy Awards in the three categories including the supporting actor which was one of the important cop roles. So I won't be surprised either if it was picked to represent India for the 2017 Oscars.

This is a Kollywood film, but watching it feels like a some dark tone Korean crime-drama- thriller. I have seen some of Indian cop films, but so far this one was the best when it comes to the realism yet not depicted them in a good way. I highly recommend it, but don't expect a genuine screenplay with a grand twist. It makes you feel how the innocence was taken away from the poor by the people with power, really heartbreaking.

9/10

The movie revolves around four youths who went out of their homes to a foreign place for working, but what it takes in it's course of orbit is pretty heavy. It takes the entire system that's been there for decades in a country and more to it is there is no hiding from showing how flawed it is. Having such high intensity in subject, there is nothing less that you can expect visually! The core cast has defined nothing but the definition for reality on screen. Their hard work is visible in every frame. Introducing a pair and a love bud to the lead wasn't really needed, if it was for making the climax more powerful then I feel the effect was meager. The BGM by GV is very subtle to grasp during the watch(First time at least). But it helped in a great way to reduce the intensity, without which it could be intense a few folds more.

This movie will stay with you! This movie will affect you! This movie will make you think about the entire system! This movie can make you get obsessed !

So I would say to be prepared for all of it before you decide to watch it.

Visaranai (Interrogation) captures the harsh truth behind Police department corruption, thirst for Power, urge to close cases and how it affects the life of four runaway youngsters in a non-native state. It is just not that actually the plot traverses to the native state to show that no mercy is left in the department on handling the poor guys. It is based on true incidents which became a novel named "Lock Up" by M. Chandrakumar. Well that explains the crux of the tale but what makes it more solid and interesting is the chilling screen play and 100 % pure cinema type of handling where there was no absolute space for commercialism. Hats off to Director Vetrimaran who has dared to experiment this genre which reflects the ruthless, impolite, merciless, callous nature of some police officers. The plot gets enhanced by the performers like Dhinesh, Samuthirakani, Kishore, Adukalam Murugadoss and some more actors whom we hardly know by their names. The thrashes that these boys take up looks so vivid, raw, brutal, inhuman and clearly I understand this movie will be a hard to digest fact for soft or weak hearted audience. So people of this sort you are warned better try some comedy in the next screen. On the technical front the cinematography and BGM also shows the pain. This movie is a clear warning that there is a corrupt system out there waiting for innocent prey and if we are caught it is like the hell's hole and no escape. I didn't find anything as such which ruins the flow or script. So pure award category no scoring required.

Verdict : "Watch it if you can take it"

-Sivakumar Balachandran

I m shivering as i am typing this......... Gut wrenching.....Ufff!! I m exhausted!!!! Truly sucked out every last bit of my soul!!!

This is too realistic to be labeled as a film.....An extremely violent intense political conspiracy is the apt genre.... Really tests the audience mental strength!!! My heart was pounding during the entire 110 minutes of running time...... Gonna have hard time sleeping at least for a few days!!!

This film will undergo some serious cuts before releasing in theater's, as the characters depicted and their language are too raw... Hope censor board takes it easy and release it with minor cuts.....

Dinesh, U beauty.....Wat have u done!!!.....National Award is awaiting!!!

Out of all the 100 films which i ve seen this year, this tops the list like a Boss.... Too good even for a WORLD cinema standards!!!! Take a bow, Vetrimaaran!!! A Masterpiece in filmmaking!!!!

I was eagerly waiting for this movie for ages and it has finally arrived after getting several laurels around the world. I won't reveal the story much but it is all about the scapegoat technique handled by the cops. Right from the start, the screenplay was very gripping and there was no clue about what is about to come next.

The performance of the whole cast is very surprising as everyone acted to their core and brought the very best in them. Although the movie is very intense, there are some humor elements through some body languages and silly comments. It may take some sweat off our head but another scene will be right behind to take you to the edge of the seat.

I haven't watched such an intense movie with so much quality content in it, delivered in a very grippy manner.

Easily, this is the most impactful movie of this decade!

I sincerely thank Vetrimaran for making such a masterpiece!!

Cast-performance-BGM-screenplay-content = Visaranai.