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Viduthalai Part 1 Movie Review: Vetrimaaran Explores A Man Losing Innocence In The Most Brutal Way

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Sameera Patel
Viduthalai Part 1 Movie Review: Vetrimaaran Explores A Man Losing Innocence In The Most Brutal Way

Kumaresan (Soori), a newly joined police officer, is posted in a politically sensitive village where he is supposed to capture the leader of a separatist group, Perumal (Vijay). With time he learns tough way that the stories of valour and shining badges about the police force are not the same in reality.


Vetrimaaran, with time, has become the voice of the have-nots whom the woke culture and progress both have to reach. He is a mirror that shows the exact reflection of their condition and how brutal an existence they are living. The filmmaker weaves his stories in a way that they are niche in nature but global in approach. Viduthalai, for the beginners is probably the least ideologically brutal movie to come out of his mind, but visually the brutality multiplies and for a reason.


Written by Vetrimaaran and adapted from Jayamohan’s novel Thunaivan, Viduthalai is a movie that is used as a run-up to the central conflict and nothing else. A 10-minute long shot without a single cut, in the beginning, speaks at length about the immersive experience the filmmaker wants to welcome you in. A train filled at total capacity with passengers is bombed, and there is death all around. The camera skilfully walks through the entire scene defying geography, through windows, uncomfortable openings in the fallen train, and past dead bodies and amputated body parts. He doesn’t want you to be a viewer but a participant.


It is about a police officer filling up for a dead officer in a region known for the unrest it is in. Technically Kumaresan always thought of the force as righteous and the one that is always at the service of people. Little did he know the brutality of the business. There is so much nuance in how Vetrimaaran creates Kumaresan visually. He is informally ousted from the troop because he follows the book and has a heart. He was told to guard a watch tower and later connected to a skill set that he must have developed while being on the tower. Slowly he is made to lose his faith and innocence but becomes brutal to fight for his rights.


So is the man who he is fighting against. Perumal, a boss of a separatist group, fights for the people. At some point in his life he was also like Kumaresan, because the screenplay does hint at his generous heart. So technically here are two individuals of the same emotion fight against each other. Between this is the class divide, the caste divide, police brutality, the haves eating off the have nots, and the forest that is very much a character.


Viduthalai Part 1 Movie Review: Vetrimaaran is himself experimenting with Viduthalai, the filmmaker has reshaped his own grammar and tried to expand the universe.

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Sameera Patel
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