“Lock Up” gets a powerful film retelling

It was on the suggestion of a friend that Tamil director Vetrimaaran read Lock Up a Tamil novel written by M. Chandrakumar, an auto-driver from Coimbatore.

Chandrakumar’s biography spoke of police atrocities that he and his four friends endured when arrested for no fault of theirs.

Vetrimaaran, who learnt filmmaking under late director Balu Mahendra, knew he had to translate it onto screen, but was worried about striking the right balance in narrating the story.

“I did not want to go into a preaching mode and at the same time did not want to shy away from the truth,” said the director, who produced the critically acclaimed ‘Kaaka Muttai.’

“It had to be grounded and real.”

The film, Visaranai, out in the UAE on February 4, has been emotionally and physically draining for the cast and crew.

“Actors worked at a stretch for 16 hours though I wanted to push them to doing twenty hours in order to bring out the frustration in their characters.”

The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival last year, with Chandrakumar and Vetrimaaran in attendance.

Visaranai is produced by Vetrimaaran’s close friend, actor Dhanush, who has starred in two of his films and will also be in Vetrimaaran’s next, a gangster film.