Visaranai (விசாரணை, Interogation, Tamil; 2016)
Screenplay and Direction: Vettrimaaran
Generally, I do not appreciate too much violence on the screen. This time around, it was different. It was no torture porn, but it was necessary to inflict the correct emotion to the viewers.
This is no showcase drama of Indian culture or positive virtues but is a story that can happen anywhere in the world. Maybe the setting would not be the dirty back alleys of India or the unkempt dark skinned underprivileged Tamil labourers; the narration is the same. That, everyone, works for the System, and the System decides what is right and who is correct.
It does not matter how high you are in the social strata, how educated or how influential you think you can be, the System decides. Hey, this sounds almost like organised religion; everyone is same in the eyes of God, God is watching you, (bad) things just happens!
No matter what people say about the division of powers between the legislative, executive and judiciary arms to ensure check and balance, in practice money dictates everything. There can never be a stronger motivator in life than money. As the Tamil proverb says, "even a corpse would open its mouth at the mention of money"!
The whole system in corrupt. Even though there are "a few good men" are present, their hands are tied. The dilemma for them is between doing the right thing for the sake of the elusive Truth versus losing your daily bread. No amount of daily prayers is going to bring that square meal for him and his dependents. The System is so intertwined with our lives that it becomes indispensable and irremovable. Damn if you don't and damn if you do! Fight the System, you just lose, become another statistic and the System's work on Earth will go on, business as usual!
Just like the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami which jolted the pirate activities for a whole year, we need a major reshuffle and overhaul in the System to put in order. History, however, has shown that status quo soon reverts afterwards. A year after the tsunami, pirate started rearing their ugly flags, and it is business as usual for them after a little hiccoughs in the System!
Visaranai is a gem which deservedly won accolades at the National level and had its premier screening at Venice Film Festival. It won the Amnesty International Award.
Four Tamil men (Pandi, Murugan, Afzal and Kumar) left the homes in Tamil Nadu after personal problems there. They found employment in a small Telugu speaking neighbourhood in Andhra Pradesh. Doing menial jobs, they live like vagabonds sleeping in the City Park.
One day, these four friends are picked by the Andhra Police, beaten up to a pulp to confess to a high-profile armed robbery at an officer's house. Everybody, including Pandi's employer, seems to be coaxing them to admit to a crime they know nothing. The junior police officers have to close the file as soon as possible as the pressure from the top. These unkempt homeless people from the lower class/caste seem easy targets. Pandi kind of becomes the de facto leader of the pack to deny charges. He blurts about the police brutality at his trial and is rescued by a Tamil Nadu police officer who happened to be there for another mission.
That moves the movie to the second part. The Tamil police officer, Muthuvel, is there to capture a go-between middle man, KK, who arranges deals for politicians. Obviously, KK is with the losing side, and he is witch-hunted by the police who acts as running dogs for the government of the day. The four friends go out of the way to help the Tamil policemen. They appear virtuous, unlike their Andhra counterparts. How wrong were they? Kumar, one of the four homeless guys, made it home, became an autorickshaw rider and lived to write his experience in Andhra Pradesh in a novel 'Lock-up' upon which this film is based. Kumar also made an appearance in Venice during the screening of this show. The others got embroiled in the police brutality all over again. They soon realised that even the white collared educated ones are not immune from the wheel of misfortune when it starts rolling.
The characters who portray the role of law-enforcement officers are varied. Living to the proof of Milgram's experiments and Hannah Arendt's 'Banality of Evil', some of them just want to finish their assigned jobs and keep their bosses happy. Some are happy just to pass the buck to the other and absolve himself of any wrongdoings. One interesting old-timer is so well versed in how to do the dirty job that he had become so philosophical about it! He says, "....every life on Earth is precious. They should not die for nothing; their death could be used to write off certain cases!" when someone mentions that they should be just killed off. Muthuvel, the good cop, also to bow to the System to save his skin and job.
At the end of the movie, you are left with a bad after-taste and a nihilistic perception of our human race and its future generations to come. The message is clear. Every system that our ancestors started which seems to have been created to set order to the society is the very system that is eating it up. The story depicted here is not an outcome of somebody's wild imagination but is indeed the reality on the ground. The last scene of the film sums it up. A good cop is killed by his own man. The media is manipulated to gain sympathy for the family, make a martyr out of the officer and start a public debate on the appalling working conditions of policemen. The poor and the outcast die a worthless death until a social activist takes up the course.
Some memorable dialogues, (Translated)
Screenplay and Direction: Vettrimaaran
Generally, I do not appreciate too much violence on the screen. This time around, it was different. It was no torture porn, but it was necessary to inflict the correct emotion to the viewers.
This is no showcase drama of Indian culture or positive virtues but is a story that can happen anywhere in the world. Maybe the setting would not be the dirty back alleys of India or the unkempt dark skinned underprivileged Tamil labourers; the narration is the same. That, everyone, works for the System, and the System decides what is right and who is correct.
It does not matter how high you are in the social strata, how educated or how influential you think you can be, the System decides. Hey, this sounds almost like organised religion; everyone is same in the eyes of God, God is watching you, (bad) things just happens!
No matter what people say about the division of powers between the legislative, executive and judiciary arms to ensure check and balance, in practice money dictates everything. There can never be a stronger motivator in life than money. As the Tamil proverb says, "even a corpse would open its mouth at the mention of money"!
The whole system in corrupt. Even though there are "a few good men" are present, their hands are tied. The dilemma for them is between doing the right thing for the sake of the elusive Truth versus losing your daily bread. No amount of daily prayers is going to bring that square meal for him and his dependents. The System is so intertwined with our lives that it becomes indispensable and irremovable. Damn if you don't and damn if you do! Fight the System, you just lose, become another statistic and the System's work on Earth will go on, business as usual!
Just like the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami which jolted the pirate activities for a whole year, we need a major reshuffle and overhaul in the System to put in order. History, however, has shown that status quo soon reverts afterwards. A year after the tsunami, pirate started rearing their ugly flags, and it is business as usual for them after a little hiccoughs in the System!
Visaranai is a gem which deservedly won accolades at the National level and had its premier screening at Venice Film Festival. It won the Amnesty International Award.Four Tamil men (Pandi, Murugan, Afzal and Kumar) left the homes in Tamil Nadu after personal problems there. They found employment in a small Telugu speaking neighbourhood in Andhra Pradesh. Doing menial jobs, they live like vagabonds sleeping in the City Park.
One day, these four friends are picked by the Andhra Police, beaten up to a pulp to confess to a high-profile armed robbery at an officer's house. Everybody, including Pandi's employer, seems to be coaxing them to admit to a crime they know nothing. The junior police officers have to close the file as soon as possible as the pressure from the top. These unkempt homeless people from the lower class/caste seem easy targets. Pandi kind of becomes the de facto leader of the pack to deny charges. He blurts about the police brutality at his trial and is rescued by a Tamil Nadu police officer who happened to be there for another mission.
That moves the movie to the second part. The Tamil police officer, Muthuvel, is there to capture a go-between middle man, KK, who arranges deals for politicians. Obviously, KK is with the losing side, and he is witch-hunted by the police who acts as running dogs for the government of the day. The four friends go out of the way to help the Tamil policemen. They appear virtuous, unlike their Andhra counterparts. How wrong were they? Kumar, one of the four homeless guys, made it home, became an autorickshaw rider and lived to write his experience in Andhra Pradesh in a novel 'Lock-up' upon which this film is based. Kumar also made an appearance in Venice during the screening of this show. The others got embroiled in the police brutality all over again. They soon realised that even the white collared educated ones are not immune from the wheel of misfortune when it starts rolling.The characters who portray the role of law-enforcement officers are varied. Living to the proof of Milgram's experiments and Hannah Arendt's 'Banality of Evil', some of them just want to finish their assigned jobs and keep their bosses happy. Some are happy just to pass the buck to the other and absolve himself of any wrongdoings. One interesting old-timer is so well versed in how to do the dirty job that he had become so philosophical about it! He says, "....every life on Earth is precious. They should not die for nothing; their death could be used to write off certain cases!" when someone mentions that they should be just killed off. Muthuvel, the good cop, also to bow to the System to save his skin and job.
At the end of the movie, you are left with a bad after-taste and a nihilistic perception of our human race and its future generations to come. The message is clear. Every system that our ancestors started which seems to have been created to set order to the society is the very system that is eating it up. The story depicted here is not an outcome of somebody's wild imagination but is indeed the reality on the ground. The last scene of the film sums it up. A good cop is killed by his own man. The media is manipulated to gain sympathy for the family, make a martyr out of the officer and start a public debate on the appalling working conditions of policemen. The poor and the outcast die a worthless death until a social activist takes up the course.
Some memorable dialogues, (Translated)
When you have money, you feel this quiet, inexplicable guilt...
All the religions in the world have taught us that money is evil.
Especially in a country like ours, where the majority are poverty stricken...
A rich man tends to look like a culprit.
Not just to the people, he feels that way about himself!
When that feeling becomes unbearable, he chooses to lose his money.
A man who doesn't feel guilty for his money, who respects the fruit of his labour...
Who doesn't feel ashamed, but understands that it's a token of appreciation...
will be rich.
One must never hide his wealth in guilt.
One must celebrate wealth!
Humans are the most responsible life form.
Just like every birth has a purpose, so should every death.
When a life departs, it leaves a void in this world.
That void can never be filled by another.
That death should have a significance.
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