Vetrimaaran
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Vetrimaaran
Suhani Singh , Cinema “India Today” 10/10/2016 Tamil filmmaker Vetrimaaran's aam aadmi heroes don't stand a chance in front of Thalaivar, whether it's his swagger or superpowers. They are more likely to run from goons than take them head on. "I can't write about someone who is unlike me in all senses-physically, emotionally and socially," says Vetrimaaran on a phone interview from Chennai. He elaborates on how his hero thinks, "If he is confronted with two guys, he will fight. If there are four, he will negotiate; but if there are ten, he will run away." That may make him a loser in the eyes of those accustomed to larger-than-life heroes typical of Kollywood hits but Vetrimaaran's protagonist is practical, an ordinary man who lives on the fringes and struggles with routine issues. Making the ordinary extraordinary is something Vetrimaaran does rather well. He has directed three films in 10 years. Two of them - Aadukalam (2011) and Visaranai (2015) - have collectively won nine national awards, including a best director for Vetrimaaran. Visaranai, his last, was recently chosen as India's entry in the foreign language category at the Oscars. An adaptation of auto driver M. Chandrakumar's book, Lock-Up, which details his agonising experience as an inmate and sheds light on the nexus between police and politics, Visaranai is a visceral watch largely due to Vetrimaaran's no-holds-barred look at the atrocities committed in jail and the sharp editing of the late Kishore Te.
Under his assured direction, viewers get hooked to the fate of the four migrant labourers who are accused of a crime they didn't commit and get dragged into a politically-motivated crime. After its premiere at the Venice International Film Festival last year, where it won acclaim and was awarded the Cinema for Human Rights award, the festival cut was deemed too stark and Visaranai released in cinemas earlier this year with a modified sound design to tone down the emotions. But then Vetrimaaran is known to not spoon-feed his audience.
The audience back in Tamil Nadu want him to be more prolific. Only he is too judicious when making cinema. After making his debut with Polladhavan (2007), set in the world of bike theft gangs, it would be four years until the release of his next, Aadukalam, which would see a career-defining performance from Dhanush and mark the debut of Taapsee Pannu currently making waves for Pink. Recollecting the experience, Pannu appreciates the filmmaker's suggestion that she not wear make-up for the part of the quiet Anglo-Indian girl and his insistence on her not relying on the prompter or miming her Tamil lines but working hard to learn the language. "He is a man of few words but whatever he says makes a lot of sense," she says. "His films have such meticulous research that you cannot remake them. He himself wants to go beyond and not keep doing the same film in another language."
For Aadukalam, Vetrimaaran spent three years in Madurai to understand the workings of the underground world of cockfighting; with Visaranai it was pivotal he look at the marginalised status of labourers from Tamil Nadu in Andhra Pradesh and the hostility they face. The perfectionist in him feels that films are for posterity and therefore they should be "something which I'm not ashamed of. If a film can't excite me and teach me something about life, then it is not worth pursuing." Cinema for some is a means for escape, but for Vetrimaaran a fantastical setting can be used to connect with "real issues", to present a sensible film that is not oblivious to the "consumerist, modern and globalised world".
Born to a veterinary scientist father and a mother who ran a school, Vetrimaaran grew up in the town of Ranipet in Vellore. With little interest in academics he skipped classes and much to his father's disappointment showed no signs of fulfilling the least educational qualification which was to "become an engineer". Instead he spent a better part of his childhood watching films - Mani Ratnam, like for many of his generation, was a favourite - the darkness of cinema halls provided a hideaway from parents and an escape from reality.
Cricket and college would bring him to Chennai and not long after his graduation in English literature from Loyola College, he'd assist popular filmmaker Balu Mahendra. "He has been a very strong influence," says Vetrimaaran about his mentor with whom he worked for almost a decade. "He introduced me to world cinema. I learned everything about character, plot and how to get actors to deliver from him."
It was as an assistant director to Mahendra on Adhu Oru Kana Kaalam that he first met Dhanush. The actor has gone on to become Vetrimaaran's closest collaborators, starring in his first two films and jointly producing the national award-winning films Kaaka Muttai, about two slum kids' mission to eat pizza, as well as Visaranai.
The duo just wrapped up shooting Vada Chennai, a film about the underworld, which releases next year. Vetrimaaran calls Dhanush the perfect replica of himself for the big screen. "I only have to tell him the bare minimum to get what I want out of him, and he can impersonate what I say," he says. "He [Dhanush] has a hundred per cent faith in whatever I do."
Together they will have their work cut out as they try to ensure that the members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) see Visaranai. For the fourth year in a row, India has picked a drama with none of the song-and-dance routine long associated with Indian cinema but a film which is rooted in reality. Unlike in India where Vetrimaaran says he didn't have trouble convincing his producer or his actors to be a part of the film, and the audiences to watch it, Hollywood, he is only too aware, will be a different ballgame. "We have to start a new journey and we will have to learn together," says Vetrimaaran. Whatever the destination, he is already a winner.
