User reviews

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!!!!

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

There comes a movie like Whiplash once in a while where there is lot of action primarily due to intensity of performances and absorbing screenplay. Then there are movies like Haider where the movie atmosphere is dense and disturbing that you are left cold and horrified at the very end. Visaranai is a movie that has successfully blended both these aspects in order to present a practical, rational view of the system that is part of our livelihood. I cannot remember the last time I watched such an intense, nerve chilling, baffling movie in Thamizh.

As I have now noticed, Vetrimaran's films have two different halves but which are part of the same story. In Polladhavan, we see the happy, everyday youth Dhanush living a jolly good life in the first half while in the second, things take a sudden turn and he gets exposed to a world of ruthless criminals. In Aadukalam, we see Dhanush's involvement in the rivalry between 2 rival gangs in the first half, while in the latter we turn audience to how one man's greed changes his surrounding people's lives. Similarly in Visaranai, as the title suggests we are presented with 2 separate interrogations with different scenarios in both halves of the movie.

The movie attempts at one thing as beautifully explained by Kishore in one scene - The system is the boss and we are just pawns playing a game in it. The powerful always prey on the powerless and there is no way that one who has been nabbed in the web escape out from it. This is explained through layers of tightly scripted scenes with lots of crude violence, not to a forced extent of skipping the movie but watching it as if the horror where happening in front of your eyes. Few minutes into the movie the story starts unraveling and you start feeling a slight chilling fear which later keeps intensifying exponentially until the very end where you are left distraught. The range of emotions portrayed by the variety of villains torturing the innocents affect you up to a level that you start trembling as if watching a horror movie. Off late we have been seeing great improvements in movies like Thani Oruvan where a lone hero fights corrupt, antisocial elements in the society and this one breaks all those clichés to state a point that the system cannot be won over. I was particularly reminded of the Brazilian film duology 'Tropa De Elite' where the story ends with an unstated "moral" that criminals, politicians and police are of the same circle and you end up on the losing side if you mess with them.

Performance wise, Dinesh continues with an impressive tough role which might prove as a highlight in his career. I somehow feel convinced that Samuthirakani must be considered the real protagonist as his role portrays how a honest person becomes prey to the system and is left torn without options at the crux. The music, camera and editing cuts add more intense chill to the atmosphere. Special mention to Dhanush for continuing to surprise us by producing such top class movies. It is highly unlikely that any other Thamizh movie can beat the class of this in 2016!

Vetrimaran sir, you are not a director now but a visionary. This is not a movie but a well learned and constructed, flawless piece of art about the society. Feeling proud of you and the growth in your class of movies. Take some more national and international awards! I would have been glad if I could rate 12/10 for this movie!

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.

The first few montages of the yet-to-dawn nocturnal life is enough to invite the film festival community to engage in the story. Visaranai is the big screen transformation of Chandra Kumar's documented novel Lock Up; a true story about how police brutality and inhuman interrogation techniques go into tormenting innocents to admit false crimes. A group of migrants from Tamil Nadu working in Andhra Pradesh are taken into illegal custody by local police . What follows is a gruesome police drill involving batons, boots and banana stems. All they want is a confession; a fake confession. 'Attakathi Dinesh' as Pandi is the stand-up guy unwilling to surrender fearing a larger force at play and more importantly, he wants to do a great many things in life. 'Aadukalam' Murugadoss as Murugan can be easily tricked, Afsal is innocent to the core and Kumar is severally battered at an early stage.

The characters we meet on screen are controlled and manacled by the System in ways unprejudiced. Ajay Ghosh as the vicious Guntur chief Vishweshwar Rao is one such police officer with a disappointing career profile, a face like death and a body trained to beat the life out of others. But still, Attakathi Dinesh does a great many things as he aspires to do so when he is set free. There is a point of saturation in the film where even Vishweshwar Rao runs out of breath. If apathy, personal gain and atrocity ever had a threesome, mishaps like Ajay Ghosh tend to happen. The harsh acoustics of yelling can get on your nerves at some point. This was a necessity made by the film's structure to facilitate such relentless thrashing and torture. With so many battered souls locked up, it puts you in their place and raises questions. But Vetrimaran is not here to preach, his screenplay and dialogs stay direct, relaxed and procedural. Neither the water- boarding nor the vicious slow paced thrashing had any effect on Pandi, it was hope, his tenaciousness, his trickiness and a chance TN police intervention that puts an end to their misery.

Played by the ever obstinate Samuthirakani, Murugavel is a TN police officer on a special mission to trap an elite white collar auditor. Pandi and his friends return a favor and help Murugavel. The second half travels to familiar grounds of Tamil Nadu. The rich and fraudulent auditor KK (Kishore) who spurts money philosophy is the victim of the another brutal interrogation. It is his adage on 'System' that links the background events. All this talk about the System being the Kingmaker and that 'your actions have set things in motion' establishes a thick premonition. Thankfully, this talk is kept to a minimum. Had it not, then a part of audience's imagination would have reached heights of hype expecting a Brobdingnagian revelation of some sort.

There is calmness meandering in all scenes. The casual statement of the lawyer and the video logging of reconstruction scene shows the normalcy of situation and sheds light on how police practices defy law and makes you wonder on the number of cases solved by false/forced convictions. Taking a few incentives, Visaranai achieves a gritty cinematic leap. There is also a half baked romantic connection that is left to rot much like the irrelevant voiceless lives in jail. There is coherence of how the middle class working community from lower backgrounds are taken for granted. The abuse of Shanthi in the hands of her owner, the case of 4 street vagrants picked up from a Nellore park, the provision store owner who is blackmailed - a constant living in fear and hardship. 'Attakathi Dinesh' channels Pandi vehemently. He has the 'Andy Dufresse kinda' reluctance to give in. Pandi sure does suffer a hell lot in comparison. Both wrongly captured. One convicted and the other unwilling to get convicted. Maybe there can be more to say about these characters in contrast. That will be for another day. For a brief period in the last sequence of the first half, it felt like it was going to be a complete escape and survivalist episode.

The movie is a genius thriller in the making. Although not as tension seeking as Michael Mann-esque film, we feel the trap Pandi, Murugan & Afsal walk into as they accept the shameless duty of domestic help. Secondary characters make a lasting impact especially the promotion ignored officer in TN station. Muthuvel is an upright police pushed by higher officials and disoriented by the System into pursuing Pandi. Personally, my fondness for cinematography has grown rather exceptionally over the past few years. A film devoid of creative and meaningful visual strategy doesn't excite me. There were a few; very few parts in the film that meant visually nothing but then, this emptiness perfectly defines realism - through the dingy corners of highways and the wandering nightlife patrols, the blurry hope of escapism emanates. The final moments are as tense and seems like a cliffhanger until the camera zooms out to the fullest. The sudden pull and push of camera; this shift in movement noticed at a pivotal stage grounds the approach in realism as the hand-held camera becomes a secret surveillance tool, an all seeing eye - the eye of the system. As it looks down upon Pandi and Murugavel standing through knee-deep murky water, it signifies the troubled position of two candidates with no evil tendencies irrelevantly chosen by the powerful.

Visarani in its vagueness to expose a larger atmosphere for the Organism of System perfectly sums up the horrible dilemma of innocent fishes pushed into predatory waters that is timely polluted by forces unknown.

Visaranai is a movie with the highest level of filmmaking (no songs, no heroism, no nonsense) coming out from Tamil cinema.. Director Vetrimaran of Aadukalam, has done brilliant depiction of novel 'Lock Up' based on a true story(great end credits).. He portrayed an hard- hitting screenplay to show the miserable plight of innocent immigrants being made scapegoats for the powerful system (call it brutal system).. From the very first scene he will arrest your attention and what follows, is a riveting narrative and gripping cinematic experience!! The casting is first class, Attakathi Dinesh and his 3 friends(Aadukalam Murugan), the supporting cast of Samuthirakani, Kishore and Policemen In the custody, given top notch performances.. Dinesh(one of the most underrated actor) another effortless, heart- wrenching performance while the terrific Samuthurakani finding himself stuck in between this brutal system but trying to act fair for god sake, he was excellent to describe!! The private interrogation part between Samuthurakani and Kishore one of the best part of the movie.. Vetrimaran made it a classic encounter against the painful, merciless lockup scenes.. And when you think things get better for Dinesh and friends, misfortune struck again, inevitably.. Move on from there, Afsal execution scenes will make you breaking inside.. Spell bounded!! The intense climax ended in the dark, intentionally he wants us to know nothing can be justified that ill-fated Dinesh character, very well crafted by Vetrimaran.. He is certainly, one of a kind filmmaker in the league of Bala and Myskkin!! This cinema is so world class!!

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Visaaranai (U/A) TAMIL ---- my Rating: ★★★★½ POWERFUL Interrogation

STRENGTHS:- * Inspired by true events.... * Excellent performances by the cast, will deserve an national award. * GV's powerful background score..... * Perfectly chopped by Late editor Kishore.... * Story Screenplay Dialogues and Direction....

WEAKNESSES:- * After interval it lags for few minutes.....

FINAL VERDICT:- *Overall.. it is next level movie in tamil cinema showing some realistic events happened in southern part of India. I was really amazed with this script, In last 30 mins your heart will be pumping as you have gripped into the movie so deeply with some crisp screenplay. Sometimes movie gives a feel of myskin style. First half is based on real incidents, whereas the second half was well written by Vetrimaaran.

A group of immigrants (Pandi, Murugan, Afsal and Kumar) are detained by the local state police, tortured and forced to admit to a crime they have no knowledge of. When all hope seems to be ... See full summary » Director: Vetrimaaran Writer: Vetrimaaran Stars: Dinesh, Samuthirakani, Anandhi | See full cast & crew »

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

A stark departure from the run of the mill gravity defying stunts, ping pong color costume, queer hand, leg, body gesture by central characters in slow motion, Visaaranai is a bold, realistic, gripping ddrama on police brutality and corruption.

If you are a great admirer of Santosh Sivan and Adoor Gopalakrishnan, you will miss that lyrical romanticism in frames, in storytelling and in treatment. Instead what the director's command over the treatment overpowers you and transports you to a the world of four hapless Tamil daily-wage earning laborers who have made the neighboring state of Andhra Pradesh their home. Four time national award winning director Vetri Maaran hits it hard with realm of realism, there are gruesome violent scenes which border around torture p**n shows you violence at its harshest best.

Tight gripping story, excellent acting, good screenplay make it great to watch, but I am not confident about its Oscar success (though every year I hope India gets a best foreign movie award). May be its contemporaries made the movie look so good. I liked the movie but I am not going gaga over it. I hope Visaaranai inspires more directors and technicians and we get to see more such meaningful movies in future.

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.

Hard to believe this is a true story. Very well made movie with a raw and realistic feel. An all-too-real crime thriller that exposes the injustice & violence at the heart of our criminal justice system.

This is a pure torture porn. If you love these kind of movies, you'll love this. As for me while the plot was truly great, I just could barely watch it since it's a very disturbing movie.

This movie shows the harsh reality faced by some in some parts of the world.I can call this a masterpiece in reality film making.I have not known much about Vetrimaaran,after watching this,I feel like knowing more about him.This is a very sensitive topic to see upon.Therefore,I have give my huge applause to director Vetrimaaran for the courage and braveness shown by him that many other director's have struggled to show over the years,be it in Indian cinema or abroad.Hats off.The sufferings of the innocent minds in reality were finally paid off through this film with the blessings of the Almighty.Performances by Samuthirakani and Dinesh Ravi has totally done justice to the characters they played.Supporting casts did excellent jobs as well.Everyone has lived their character in this film in a totally convincing manner.I hope they will deserve all their awards in the coming award ceremony regardless of the one they already have.The highlight of the film was the interrogation scenes between the police and the victims.The cruelty of the police officers towards these helpless people were shown without any distinction.The innocence shown by the actors were unseen and amazingly painful to watch.The beating shown on screen will definitely be felt by all experiencing this film.Some may even end up in tears.I would also give a huge thumbs up the make up artists of this film for giving such real wounds and bruises for the actors.Music was done well and really intense.There are many moments that will make you scared and shiver through your spine.Finally,I wish the whole team and producer Dhanush my heartfelt well wishes for presenting this magnanimously informative piece of art that has become an eye opener for many worldwide.Hands down,again.God bless those who were affected in real life.A better life is awaiting you.Thank you,for this painful and hard hitting piece of brilliance.

One week after Iridhi Suttru here comes another Novel film Visaranai known as 'interrogation' in film festival's. I always like novel to screenplay converted films where the screenplay writer exactly knows the depth of the story. It is one gem of a film in Indian cinema which must be appreciated for its originality and the realism and brutality(FYI, I am big fan of brutality) Excellent screenplay, Just what the directed wanted acting and polite background music makes the film pleasant to want.

Saving the rest for the best. This film is must watch for its social message it wanted to convey. The film brings a huge debate to the public forum,

Beautiful portrayal of emotions, helplessness of innocents corrupt system. Credit to the casting team, no character seemed out of sync throughout the cinema time. No wonder it won amnesty International Italia award. Makes one see how human rights are being violated. How Innocents are victimized by the corrupt state agencies, which are meant to protect them.

This movie is a director's special. Danush not only as an actor has good taste in cinema, he's proved himself as a successful producer. Initially my choice of movies were based on the actors, then actors and directors and movies like these makes one choose based on who is producing that movie, such is the choice of Danush's movies.

This film was on the competition list of the 2016 'Bildrausch' ('Image Inebriation') Filmfest in Basel, Switzerland. It did not win the 1st price ...

Since all reviewers so far stem from the Indian cultural space, which will have a positive effect on the rating of any artwork from that area, I permit myself to add my modest review as an European, trying to be more neutral.

The film comes technically perfect. Content-wise, it cannot reach the quality of the major Western directors, though. So don't expect too much.

The background of the acting is always an urban area - lots of police stations and jails. The lacking of any natural environment (except in the end scene with a swamp surrounded by apartment houses), together with the lack of humour and irony, make the film a bit desperate and breathless to look, although corresponding to the reality.

There is a lot of violence, beatings, going on nearly all the time. These actions look often exaggerated, like punching a ball.

As the director revealed in the discussion following the watching, the story was composed of two different real stories, hence its extraordinary length.

Overall certainly worth to see (not for children or fainthearted).

Yes you are reading it right! The movies has everything to be oscar worthy. Thanks to Netflix, I discovered this movie. Had it been well marketed then, it would have got much more international prizes. Strange that even after india's Entry to academy awards, it didn't even get nominated. Every single actor has emoted realistically and from beginning till end one will be completely involved. Outstanding direction.

The system sucks and when it comes to the most powerfull, no one is spared .. I'm appalled to know that this actually happened.. The story was well researched and you start feeling pity for the labourers involved here.. I'm in real shock and fear that if you are in the wrong time in the wrong place this can happen with anyone of us .. Very will captured movie. Thanx for bringing this up.

If you love crime thriller genre then you are in for a treat. The story is beautifully conveyed. The acting is just flawless. The darkness of the movie is just carried out till the end. The movie never turns monotonous. Some may find it violent and yeah on certain occasions it turns out to be violent but that is how this story meant to be. Every department has been beautifully covered like corruption,ill treatment of the poor,the struggle they face. The love story was for a short time but the sadness of it you can feel when you look back and think about it. I would say go for it and just admire the beauty of this masterpiece!!

This will keep you in thoughts for a while.. Outstanding movie with an apt cast and deadly acting!! There is love, emotion and betrayal and what not.. A masterpiece that must be watched by every movie lover..DONT MISS THIS!!

Just watched this movie on netflix....and i am now speechless .