210. Viduthalai Part 1; movie review

 

VIDUTHALAI PART 1

Cert 15

144 mins

BBFC advice: Contains very strong language, strong violence, bloody images, sexual humiliation

Cinema in India is obsessed with cops and corruption within the force but too often characters are one-dimensional kick-ass types.

Thankfully, Viduthalai Part One has a rare hero - an unassuming novice who has a moral code far higher than that of his seniors.

Soori plays the constable who is posted to a remote forest hillside where the militant People's Army is hiding.

On his first day, he buts head with the camp commander (Chetan) because he goes against his order and helps save the life of a villager.

It transpires that his senior is more concerned with his own stature than carrying out his duties.

Thus, he consistently goes for the easy option of persecuting villagers for information even if they have none. Indeed, it even appears that he may derive pleasure from their torture.

This rankles heavily with the moral newbie and, meanwhile, The People's Army continues to run amok.

Soori's character is having such a hard time that he may have run away but for a gradual, naive love for a shy villager (Bhavani Sre).

The problem is that he is a conscientious police officer and she has relatives among the militants.

And he is caught between a rock and a hard place because he is actually trying to protect innocent people rather than treat them as animals by beating confessions out of them.

With the law being broken on both sides, he is alone in trying to work a path between them.

This would be an interesting premise with the very unusual backdrop of a very remote part of India but Vetrimaaran's film lasts a bum-numbing two hours and 32 minutes and has only reached halfway.

Nevertheless, Soori excels as the naive but determined cop and Chetan plays his villainous boss with great relish.

I look forward to Part 2 but I wish it were shorter than this.

Reasons to watch: Rare realism in a cop thriller

Reasons to avoid: Too long

Laughs: None

Jumps: None

Vomit: None

Nudity: None

Overall rating: 8.5/10

Did you know? In real life, the People's Liberation Guerrilla Army is the armed wing of the Communist Party of India, a banned political organisation which aims to overthrow the Indian Government through protracted people's war.

The final word.  Soori: "Viduthalai is about an ordinary man who is put in an extraordinary situation. He would consider a certain path to be the right one, but is unable to as those above him think otherwise. Even for our voices to be heard, we have to be at a certain level and that’s something I’ve noticed in a lot of scenarios." The Hindu

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