Tamil movie, “Visaranai” nominated for Oscar in Best Foreign Film category

The story of 4 Tamil homeless labourers working in Andhra Pradesh who are rounded up by police, tortured brutally and framed by false charges is perhaps a routine story in India. But thanks to this film, “Visaranai” meaning Interrogation, it is now for the world to witness the extent of horror inherent in corrupt political and judical systems in our country.

This 2015 movie, based on M.Chandrakumar’s( an autorickshaw driver from Coimbatore, TN) novel, “The Lock up”was directed by Vetrimaaran. It was screened in the Venice Film Festival this year where it won the Amnesty International Italia award.

In the National film awards, it won 3 awards this year including Best Feature Film in Tamil.

“Visaranai is beautifully filmed, though there isn’t much room for beauty. The frames appear to have been snatched from the back alleys of life. The illusion is aided by the utterly lifelike performances—even if the word “performance” seems wrong.” This is the review given by The Hindu for Visaranai.

In these times of rampant human rights violations, the system deals its worst to the lowest in the socio-economic strata- the most vulnerable, who can be easily framed in the name of any pre-planned crime they did not commit.