Viduthalai : Effect, Taanakkaran : Cause

Custodial violence is something that has always been a part of your typical news cycle. There is always an instance of judicial overreach every few months. This is the case irrespective of the Government. The question rises that is custodial violence a political issue or a psychological one.

Viduthalai instantly reminded of me of a film that was released just a few months prior - the brilliantly made Taanakkaran, which I see as a prequel to the former in many ways than one.

Spoiler Alert : Article contains minor spoilers for both Viduthalai: Part I (2023) and Taanakkaran (2022).

Viduthalai: Part 1 is a fictional story about E-Company, one of the many police special camps that had been deployed in the hilly areas of rural Tamil Nadu to combat with domestic terrorist forces. The world is conveyed through the eyes of Constable Kumaresan (played by Soori), who has been newly recruited into the E-Company and is brought face to face with the harsh and often brutal realities as a result of his job.

Films like Visaranai, Viduthalai and Jai Bhim attempt to portray the realities of custodial violence, but Taanakkaran takes a step back and tries to understand the reason that goes behind this and attempts to paint a psychological profile of the Police force. While Viduthalai and Jai Bhim are the effects, Taanakkaran would be the cause.

Taanakkaran is also about Arivu (played by Vikram Prabu), who arrives at Police Recruit School (PRS) for his police training, where he quickly learns that the trainees (future policemen) are taught to, or rather brutalized to follow orders and orders only. Anything otherwise would be treated as insubordination, resulting in physically exhausting punishments. The story basically proceeds with Arivu trying to challenge or rather understand the status quo.

Taanakkaran puts forth the argument that the reason for this psychological conditioning is the reason for policemen to later develop the authoritative mindset, which then results in events we see happening in films like Viduthalai. For example, Kumaresan is given punishment duties for the sole reason of ignoring his Officer-in-charge ‘s order to help out a tribal woman with medical emergency in that locale.

Fueled by Performances

It is not an exaggeration to accolade recent tamil movies for their highly realistic portrayal of people of authoritative nature, such as Police men, Lawyers, Justices found in courtroom scenes. While earlier these characters where portrayed rather one dimensionally except if they were the story lead. But more in to the casting of these two movies,

Taanakkaran features a phenomenal Lal as Eshwaramurthy, the ruthless trainer whose only goal is to win the parade medal even if the price to pay might be death or extreme physical duress of the trainees through his Extreme Drill (ED) methodology.

Viduthalai finds this parallel in Ragavendar, played by Chetan. Who is hell bent on diffusing the domestic terrorism by employing ... you guessed it. Custodial torture. This is where the graphic imagery of Viduthalai comes in leaves behind a lasting effect, as Ragavendar and his E-company never hesitate to violate the human rights of anyone whom they ‘deem’ as perpetrators. The tribal women and men of the surrounding areas become victims to this.

Another brilliant casting of both the films would be the higher level IPS officers in both the movies. For long, Tamil cinema had discarded the probability that an IPS officer can actually be from any part India.

In Viduthalai it is the role of Sunil Menon, played by Gautam Vasudev Menon. Who heads operation GhostHunt. As per the film, Sunil can be “charming but ruthless when needed”. Which is exactly how the character arc is designed throughout the movie.

Taanaakkaran has the role of presiding officer of that battalion, played by an unknown actor. Who delivers a stellar performance and even looked and resembled some real-life senior level officers of the Tamil Nadu police. Taanakkaran delivers one of my personal favorite climaxes. As Arivu believes that he has finally fought and won the system, he is dealt with the huge death-blow that the ‘system always wins’ by the exact same senior officer who was on his side throughout the entire movie.

It is interesting to note that Taanakkaran was directed by an actual ex-police officer - turned actor/filmmaker, who also worked as an associate for Viduthalai. Trust Vetrimaran to always get the right guy for the right job !

While films before either portrayed police either as superhero, a ‘white knight’ or as a supervillain, who is beyond redemption, Vetri Maran’s Viduthalai and Thamizh’s Taanakkaran form two of a very small list of films - Films which tries to explore the idea that the police psyche is actually a gray area that has been created by a flawed system, A system whose goal is to only ensure it’s existence.