Vetrimaaran’s Visaranai (2016) - The Direst Warning on Police Shenanigans
Do not hang inside or hover around a police station after your business with the police is done. Cops might fit you up in place of some lost piece of a jigsaw puzzle. Your life and well-being are of no importance to policemen when measured against their own performances, inordinate political pressure, promise of pelf or plain survival. They might draft you in as a witness, frame you as a convenient culprit, pass you off as a hapless victim, or use your services in any other imaginative way from sweeping the police station to buying stationery items, but what is certain is that you would end up feeding some of your intestinal juice to the tapeworms.
Another valuable lesson learnt from Visaranai is to avoid running into cops the first thing in the morning. There is no way that a chance morning encounter with a policeman can end well for a commoner. After all, a cop has the right to wonder if you are up too early or have not yet gone to bed? The film does not say it but avoid rushing into cops late into the night as well. Hell, let me bite the bullet, and suggest that keeping off cops at all times across all seasons is the best policy if you are not looking for trouble. Watch Martin Scorsese’s The Departed (2006) if you are still not convinced regarding the police business.
Never demand or accept a cop’s help for gratis. He shall expect a quick payback and would pile his bundle of misery upon you sooner than you realize. Buy his services, shake hands when you are done, and off you go. Do not look back, do not entangle him into your affairs and sure as hell do not get entangled into his or the department’s mess. Hobnobbing with police shall at best get you killed, and dehumanize you at it’s worst.
Visaranai in Tamil means interrogation. Four Tamil migrant labourers working in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, living in a public park to save up on rent money, are rounded up by local cops in connection with a high-profile robbery case. They retract their custodial confession in open court citing torture. Aided by a Tamil cop who translates their version, they secure a release from a sympathetic judge. Soon after, they end up helping their benefactor cop by becoming accomplices in a high-profile political kidnapping outside the court premises. Once they reach Chennai, local cops ask them to sweep the police station as a sort of ‘begar’, where they end up becoming accidental witnesses to the custodial murder of this kidnapped man. Since this is a game of high stakes involving huge extortion amount and all kinds of risks, the police brass feels obliged to liquidate these voiceless, paperless migrant workers. Because, why to leave behind witnesses and take any chance, when you can kill those poor workers with impunity!
The one who had saved them in Andhra court does protest against this decision but gives in to peer pressure. This is how the mob operates. You cannot break ranks in the name of conscience. You shall be paid your due share, accorded proper respect and provided protection, but any attempt to upturn the apple cart is sure to invite reprisals. Sentimental are dubbed as weak and made short work of.
Visaranai imparts a valuable lesson that one should not lend or offer his mobile phone to anyone because it can get you involved in any conspiracy. The electrionic footprint is enough to get you a knock on your door, long judicial remand and an entry into the chargesheet. It is all very nice to play a good Samaritan, but you do not know what game the other person might be playing. The film is an expose of how the police operate across states, and why it might not be too off the mark to label them as mafia.
A couple of casteist remarks are thrown in cops’ cross-talks, but the primary focus of Visaranai remains custodial torture, fake confessions, cock and bull tales and staged encounters. M. Chandrakumar, one of the four labourers shown in the film, was dropped by the cops during Guntur-Chennai journey and hence survived his three friends to tell the tale. The film is based upon his semi-autobiographical novel titled Lock Up. Visaranai is the most hard-hitting and absorbing film of Vetrimaaran’s oeuvre, which comprises of Aadukalam, Vada Chennai, Vidhuthalai and Asuran. The film was submitted as India’s entry to the 89th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. At the National Film Awards, it was awarded the Best Tamil Feature Film. It was also awarded for Best Editing, while Samuthirakani (playing the Tamil cop who initially helps the migrant labourers) won the Best Supporting Actor. Actors were actually thrashed to lend authenticity to torture scenes inside the lock up. Their performances are raw and realistic enough to leave the viewers disturbed. Poor, unlucky migrant workers end up stealing death from the jaws of prison-time, making this real story a classic case of jumping from frying pen into fire.
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