Viduthalai: Part 1 which marks comedian Soori's debut as a lead actor, in a full fledged serious role released in theaters worldwide today, and has been gaining positive acclaim for the latest hero on the block. Given the movie is based on real life police brutality, the subject of the film has been noted to be quite heavy by those who've caught the film all day today.
The movie will be making its digital premiere on Zee 5. The film is expected to stream in the next 30 days; OTT release date of Viduthalai: Part 1 will be around April 29, 2023 [Saturday]. An official confirmation on the same is however awaited. The film is made in two parts, Parts 1 and 2. The shooting for both films has been completed, and the movie will be released in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada.
The movie features Vijay Sethupathi in the character of “Vaathiyaar” and Soori in the character of Kumaresan, a policeman. Apart from these two exceptional stars, Gautham Vasudev Menon, Bhavani Sre, Prakash Raj, Rajiv Menon, Chetan, and Ilavarasu play pivotal roles.
Viduthalai Part 1, his most hard-hitting film since Visaranai, isn’t just another film on police brutality but one that exposes the inefficiency of a system which continues to prey upon the weak. The film, which is definitely not for the faint-hearted, is an elaborate, detailed exploration of abuse of power and it dives deep into the psyche of a man, an honest police constable, who is torn between his job and seeking the truth.
The film is narrated from the perspective of Kumaresan (Soori), a righteous police constable who gets recruited into the team that has been on the hunt to capture Perumal aka Vaathiyar – The Mentor (Vijay Sethupathi), the leader of the local separatist group called Makkal Padai (People’s Army). Kumaresan joins the force with big dreams but little does he know that he would spend most of his time doing menial jobs – from delivering food to every check post through the forest to doing tower duty at night. When Kumaresan accidentally crosses paths with Vaathiyar and later plays a pivotal role in his capture, his beliefs about what’s right and wrong are questioned.
The film opens with a train blast and the visuals are easily the most chilling scenes one would've seen in Indian cinema in recent years. People’s Army is blamed for the attack which has resulted in 28 deaths and many severely injured. The police department launches operation ‘Ghost Hunt’ to capture Vaathiyar dead or alive. Cut to next shot, we see a bus being frisked at a check post and the police shoot down two men (for carrying weapons) in cold blood when they try to flee the scene. In both the scenes, some lives have been taken but the police killings are justified as they become newspaper headlines the next day. Viduthalai questions the ethics behind police brutality in the most uncomfortable, unflinching fashion. The fact that it narrates the story from the perspective of an innocent constable makes the experience more chilling than one can imagine.
