Vetrimaran’s reel proven real; thank you, cop

CHENNAI: Filmmaker Vetrimaaran had already made a hard-hitting film on police brutality, Visaranai, in 2015. Made on a shoestring budget, the makers spent more marketing the film at the Oscars.

An unintended effect of this was an Indian techie in the US, who cited Visaranai to not co-operate with the American police when he was accused of sexual assault by his co-passenger in a flight. The software engineer from TN was eventually found guilty and convicted there.

In the trial, the techie’s lawyer said that his client believed he’d be tortured unless he gave incriminating statements and cited Visaranai (a film about corrupt police using violence to coerce guilty pleas) as evidence of his belief that he faced a similar threat in the US, a Washington Post report had stated. Essentially, a sexual abuser used a ‘Thank you, Visaranai’ card to defend himself.

Vetrimaaran’s latest outing, Viduthalai, can be called a compilation of State-sponsored violence. Days before the film’s release, an IPS officer in Tamil Nadu had inadvertently become the poster boy of police brutality and would have erased any doubts an unassuming viewer might have had while watching Viduthalai.

Apart from making rooted cinema, Malayalam films are also famous for their exhaustive ‘Thank you’ cards before the movie starts. Vetrimaaran, who is known for making changes till the last moment before his movie releases, could have added a ‘Thank you’ card for Viduthalai – Thank you, ‘Pal’veer Singh.

— Srikkanth Dhasarathy, Chennai