The Theme
The first few minutes of Vetrimaaran’s “Viduthalai Part 1” sets the stage for what the film is really about. After putting him on punishment duty for disobeying a direct order and helping a local woman, Officer in Charge Raghavendar (Chethan) calls up the new police constable Kumaresan (Soori) and expects that he will apologize for his disobedience. Asked if what he did was wrong, Kumaresan diligently replies “Thappu thaanunga aiya….Aana, andha edathula adhu thappila” (It was wrong, sir…..But in that instance, it wasn’t wrong)
Viduthalai Part 1 is a film about many things. It’s about police brutality, it’s about the government-corporate nexus, it’s about humanity, it’s about oppression, it’s about the struggle between ideologies. Each guy who watches the movie will say that this theme or that theme is the focus of the movie. But ultimately, all of those themes revolve around a much more intimate struggle that anyone can relate to. That of a good man trying to fight for his morals and humanity in a cruel world that could care less about such concerns.
Plot and Performances
Taking place in the 1980s, Viduthalai Part 1 tells the story of Kumaresan, a police constable assigned to E-Company, a task force set up to catch a local terrorist group called People’s Army and its leader, “Vaathiyaar” Perumal (Vijay Sethupathi) in Arumapuri village. Over there, he falls in love with a tribal woman (Bhavani Sre) and finds out that not everything he’s led to believe is true. After the conflict between the People’s Army and the newly appointed DSP Sunil Menon (Gautham Vasudev Menon) escalates, Kumaresan has to choose between doing the right thing and doing what’s asked of him.
While Vetrimaaran projects generally have a degree of hype surrounding them, Viduthalai piqued my interest because of Soori. “He’s a comedian. How can he convince people that he can be a lead actor?”. Well, just like how he extracted a masterful performance from Dhanush in Asuran, Vetrimaaran pulls it off again.
Soori’s always had a streak of innocence even in his comedy and Vetrimaaran weaponizes that to its full effect here. As a guy who believes in doing the right thing, Soori’s persona melds so seamlessly with the role. You don’t doubt it when he wants to help out the locals, stand up for what’s right or confess his feelings for the woman he loves.
He also does a great job bringing out the confusion and sadness every time he’s forced to confront the sadistic nature of his job. With any other actor, it might have felt a bit forced, but with Soori, it feels natural, it feels right. You can easily believe this is who Kumaresan truly is. I’m honestly excited to see what Soori has in store for us in the future.
The rest of the cast does a fair job as well. Vijay Sethupathi has little screentime as Vaathiyaar, but he effectively brings across the rage of a man trying to do right by a people oppressed by government forces. Bhavani Sre performs well and Gautham Menon does a neat job as a police officer.
Pros and Cons
Vetrimaaran usually nails the technical aspects of his movie (except one) and that’s also the case here. Vetrimaaran’s trusty DOP Velraj does a splendid job with the camera. He showcases the beauty of the mountains and the brutality of the cops with ease. Those one-take shots at the beginning and end of the movie deserve special mention. Ilayaraaja’s music does a good job of setting the movie’s tone.
Of course, I’m not going to be just gushing profusely. I did have some problems with the movie. There was of course the usual Vetrimaaran gaffe that is the inconsistent lip sync (Seriously, fix that up). The songs, nice as they were, were not needed. While the screenplay was masterfully written, the writing felt incomplete in some places for me.
For instance, the romance between Kumaresan and Bhavani wasn’t that great. Considering that it becomes a major driving force for Kumaresan’s actions later on, the writing for that part could have been beefed up. We never get to see what drives Perumal to do what he does. This was also an issue with Sunil. In one scene he’s reprimanding his officers for beating up women naked, but in the next scene, he has no problem using a naked woman as bait to get information. I guess you can make the case that all of this will be explained in Part 2, but it would have been nice to get a little glimpse into their train of thought.
Final Thoughts
Would I recommend Viduthalai Part 1? Easily.
Considering this is a movie about cops, people might expect something like Visaaranai, Vetrimaaran’s other movie about police brutality, and find it a bit lacking. But that’s missing the point. Police brutality was the main focus of Visaaranai (and Viduthalai isn’t lacking in the gore & sadism department, mind you). That’s not the main focus of Viduthalai though.
Early in the movie, Kumaresan gets a memo from his officers for disobedience and has to draft an apology. When he brings the memo to his officers, he tears it apart. He reasons that he would have never forgiven himself for apologizing for doing a good deed. He could have taken the easy way out and apologize for no fault of his. But he chooses not to and maintain his dignity even in the face of adversity.
“How far are you willing to go to maintain your morality?” feels like the film’s central theme. In that respect, Viduthalai Part 1 scores an easy victory.