Spoilers ahead…
Until now, the two-parter films we have had in India (or maybe even the world) have all been in the fantasy / history zone. This may be the first time a socio-political movie is being served in two installments.
Viduthalai – Part 1 is set in 1987, and it is based, loosely, on a Jeyamohan short story. At heart, it’s an underdog story. The big name in the cast is Vijay Sethupathi (he does a kind of cameo appearance here, and he will be seen more in Part 2), but this is about the arc of the Soori character, a newbie cop named Kumaresan. Vetrimaaran’s greatest triumph is seeing in Soori qualities that no one else saw for the 25-odd years the actor has been around. Vetrimaaran sees the goodness and the innocence and the helplessness and the lack of confidence and the desperation and also the internal moral code the actor is able to project. (Kumaresan, for instance, is not someone who will say “sorry” to a superior just so that he can escape punishment, especially if he knows he has done no wrong.) Soori repays Vetrimaaran’s instincts by internalising the director’s writing and delivering an utterly convincing performance. Most times, he doesn’t seem to be “acting”. He just is. His Kumaresan becomes our eyes and ears, because like him (initially), we are outsiders to this world.
You can read the rest of the review here:
https://www.galatta.com/tamil/movie/review/viduthalai-part-1/
And you can watch the video review here:
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