A good film which could have been greater
‘Visaranai’ was one of the films which was in my list for a long long time. At the time of release, it was so low profile that I didn’t know it was by Vetrimaaran. But anyways it didn’t look like his other films too, so I wasn’t interested much in it. The whole film had a documentary kind of look so I didn’t want to venture out into a tear jerker like ‘Angadi Theru’ and spoil my mood. ‘Visaranai’ looked like the film which was only made for awards but when I watched now, I knew there were a lot of misconceptions.
Even before the start of the film, I knew that it was not going to be a positive movie. As soon as the film opened my thought was proved to be right. Right from the notes at opening and when Pandi’s (Dinesh Ravi) friend Murugan (Aadukalam Murugadoss) says that watchman would ask for money for starting so early, the tone of the film was set. We see Inspector Muthuvel (Samuthirakani) and gang searching for a someone in the area where Murugan works in the stores. The cuss words were free flowing throughout the film and were superbly written. Good that I watched in Netflix, nothing was cut and felt proper. Vetrimaaran is always good in that aspect. The nativity is superb, especially with respect to Chennai slang.
The first part of the film was about Pandi and his friends getting caught by the police for reason unknown, where they’re asked to confess for a crime which they haven’t committed. Those scenes were shot well and was very intense. The first part of the movie, till the point where they go to court could have been a proper docudrama. Maybe it’d have been a totally negative film but it’d have proved the point. Maybe he wanted to start off with that concept as Vetrimaaran’s initial plan was to make this as an experimental film.
Things get better in the second half where they get released but we always have the fear at the back of the mind like they do. A lot happens in the second half. The film enters into a thriller mode from a realistic mode and again they’re used as scape goats. The sequence after the made-up suicide lets down the whole movie. The movie loses its sheen post that. Even though interesting, the climax where the encounter scenes start was a letdown and the last shot was a total disaster. It ended up giving a satisfaction of watching an edge of the seat thriller rather than being depressed about the situation.
Vetrimaaran has this knack of making movies with ‘impact’. Impact here would mean keeping us grooved to the movies, like how he did in ‘Asuran’. He isn’t getting near what he achieved in ‘Pollathavan’ post that film. Most of his movies end up being liked for its shock value. It’s more like a well-made horror film. He always gets a great story, a revenge drama or a man in crisis and then creates situation where people would sympathize with them, hate the antagonist and the protagonist finally kills them or gets used to kill. I won’t call it as experimenting. He knows the craft; he uses it to the fullest effect to reap the yields.
Wish his movies would be more multidimensional than being about one person’s tyranny. I’d like to see how he could create characters from both the spectrum and give life to it by telling both their positive and negative side. All we’ve seen in his film is hatred going higher notch by notch as the film passes. We back the protagonist so much so that we get blinded by whatever happens around him.
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