Directed by Vetrimaaran, Viduthalai follows the story of a constable who is posted in the rural part of Tamil Nadu, where the so-called Naxalites have made the lives of government officials a living hell. I use the phrase ‘so-called’ here because seeing those people as someone who were against the nation was merely a perspective and not the universal truth. I believe they could differentiate between the establishment and the country. They loved their nation, but they were against the government. So, let’s find out what happened to the honest constable and if he was able to survive in a corrupt setup.
Spoiler Alert
What was the ghost hunt operation?
The local people of Selliamman Durham village in the Arumapuri district and nearby rural areas of Tamil Nadu, around the mid-80s, had waged a war against the state government. They had formed an organization that they called Makkal Padai, aka the People’s Army. Their leader, Perumal, believed that one needed to make some noise in order to make the deaf hear. For the local people, Perumal was like a demigod, and they had every reason to place him on that pedestal. Perumal fought for their rights; he made sure that the police didn’t torture them, and he made sure that they were not oppressed by the corrupt policies that only benefited the rich. But then, one day, a bomb was planted on a train, and many innocent people lost their lives. Due to this incident, the state government launched an operation codenamed Ghost Hunt. The goal was to catch Perumal and other leaders of the People’s Army. Also, the state government wanted to start mining operations in the region, and the People’s Army was adamant about shutting it down because they knew what consequences it could entail. Perumal and his people knew that not only would the government exploit the natural resources, but the local people wouldn’t be able to reap the benefits of the mining operation. The land they lived on was sacred for people like Perumal, and they were ready to go to any length to save it. So, a battle began between the special police battalion named E Company and the People’s Army.
The OC of the E Company was a man named V. Ragavendar. He was a cruel man who had no morals or principles. Many local people had died in his custody, but this man didn’t bat an eye and carried on the same way. Things became a bit problematic for V. Ragavendar when Kumaresan, a constable, was posted in his unit, because his behavior and sensibilities were in stark contrast to those of his superior. Kumaresan was a humanitarian, and he was the kind of man who couldn’t stand to see injustice happening. His moral standards were so high that he didn’t even think about the consequences that his actions would have on his own life. People believed that Kumaresan was a lunatic because nobody in that day and age had such a strong conscience.
What was Sunil Menon’s strategy?
There were two incidents that I believe brought about a change in the dynamics of the local politics. The first instance was when Kumaresan defied orders and saved Tamilarasi’s grandmother. The poor man had to pay a considerable cost for his humanitarian actions. As a viewer, it frustrated me to witness the kind of torture he was put through and what he was made to do by OC Ragavendar just because he chose to help somebody in need. Now, Ragavendar thought that he could break the spirit of the man and teach him a lesson, but he had no clue that he was up against somebody who could die but not do something morally wrong. Kumaresan was put on tower duty day after day, something which never happened in the E Company unit. Kumaresan toiled hard, but he didn’t apologize to the OC. His superiors told him that he just needed to accept that he was at fault, but his conscience didn’t allow him to do that. The E Company got information that a few members of the People’s Army were hiding in the Selliamman Durham area. Under the leadership of Ragavendar, they conducted a raid in the village, and they ended up killing an innocent woman. Ragavendar knew that if his superiors and even the civilians came to know about the incident, then surely there would be an investigation, and he would end up losing his job.
So, without telling anyone, Ragavendar ordered them to burn the dead body of the victim and then spread the word that they had nothing to do with the murder. Around this time, DSP Sunil Menon was posted in the area, and he was a sensible man who had a very different way of doing things. He had a good track record and judged people on their merit, unlike Ragavendar. There were a lot of times when Sunil Menon noticed the discrimination Ragavendra practiced among his officers. He saw how badly he treated Kumaresan, and though he didn’t interfere in the matter directly, he made sure that Ragavendar was not able to act out his will in a lot of instances. Sunil knew that in order to win the trust of the villagers, they needed to adopt a different kind of strategy. So, Sunil Menon tried to influence the village folk, and he told them they would be paid a sum of 10,000 rupees if they gave any information about the members of the People’s Army. This change in strategy did help the E Company to a certain extent, but Sunil Menon was still not able to make progress as he would have wanted to. Sunil was trying hard to adopt newer, more innovative strategies, but Perumal’s influence over his people was too strong. No one in the entire village was ready to go against him.
What did Tamilarasi tell Kumaresan about her family?
Tamilarasi revealed to Kumaresan why she and the other villagers bore such animosity towards the police. Tamilarasi told him that, back in the day, her father was taken away by the police under the suspicion of collaborating with the People’s Army, and then a few days later, he was found dead. Similarly, her mother was also killed in police custody, and a few other people were tortured in a manner that nobody could imagine even in their worst nightmares. Kumaresan knew a very different version of this story. According to what he was told, Perumal had entered the police station, and he’d killed a few innocent police officers. But what Kumaresan wasn’t told was the fact that those so-called innocent police officers had tortured the people of the village and kept them under deplorable and inhumane circumstances. Kumaresan realized that Perumal was not wrong in doing what he did. The man was single-handedly fighting against institutionalized corruption and discrimination, and the people gave him such respect for a reason. Perumal’s character reminded me of Velupillai Prabhakaran, the founder of the Tamil Tigers. I believe someone had once said that one man’s revolutionary is another man’s terrorist. Whatever the authorities might think of him, and however the media portrayed him, Perumal was a father figure to the entire community. Kumaresan realized that, and I would say this was the moment where he had a complete change of heart, and he understood that he was not helping the cause of his nation.
Was Kumaresan able to catch Perumal?
Sunil Menon got to know that the people of the Selliamman Durham village were hiding certain members of the People’s Army in their houses. Just a few days before that, multiple police officers had died in an ambush orchestrated by Perumal and his men. Sunil wanted to take revenge, and he ordered the arrest of all the villagers and brought them into police custody. Now, OC Ragavendar unleashed his horror, and he tortured the villagers, especially the women, in a manner that was beyond everybody’s imagination. Tamilarasi was one of those women who was taken into custody, and Kumaresan just couldn’t stand to see her getting tortured. There was another thing that happened a few days back with Kumaresan, which he told his seniors about. There was no picture of Perumal in the official records, so nobody knew how he looked. Kumaresan had once dropped some villagers off at a certain location in his van, and later, when Sunil Menon got the intel and prepared a sketch of Perumal, the former realized that one of the villagers could have been Perumal. Kumaresan kept telling his superiors that he knew where Perumal stayed, but nobody listened to him. Later in Viduthalai, when he saw that Tamilarasi was being tortured, he went to Sunil Menon and told him to release the women, as he could give them intel on the leader of the People’s Army. Sunil Menon knew that Kumaresan was an honest man, and he was not lying to him. So, he sent a battalion with Kumaresan, and the latter did the unthinkable. He captured Perumal and brought him into police custody.
Viduthalai Part 1’s ending revealed that Kumaresan never got credit for catching Perumal, as OC Ragavendar made sure that he was suspended. Kumaresan was one of the few people who had given testimony against Ragavendar and told the collector that the OC was responsible for the murder of a villager.
What To Expect In Part 2?
Viduthalai Part 1 left us on a cliffhanger as a lot of things are yet to be ascertained. We got to know that the train bomb blast was probably not orchestrated by the People’s Army, and there were things that nobody knew about. Also, it was made pretty clear that Perumal would find a way to escape from prison. And even if he didn’t, Perumal would make sure that his words reached the youth and impacted the generations to come. I believe that Kumaresan, in the future, will leave the force, or if he is still a part of it, he will try to make amends and change the way things are done. Kumaresan’s superior, Amudhan, had told him once that he had to be a part of the system to change the system, and I believe that he would try his level best to usher in a change from within. Sunil favored Kumaresan, and I believe that he would play a pivotal role in reinstating him back to his position. Sunil knew that what Kumaresan was doing was not wrong and that Ragavendra was the one who was responsible for all the corrupt activities happening in the system. Apart from that, I believe that we will get to know how exactly Perumal became the leader that he was. We got an idea from the trailer for Viduthalai 2 that Perumal had a love interest who taught the people of the village to fight for their rights against the regime if it oppressed them. It is quite possible that Perumal will get to know that one of his own people had betrayed him and that, no matter how loyal they are portrayed to be, their integrity could be bought for a few measly rupees. It would be interesting to see how everything pans out and if the rebel forces are able to stand their ground against the government.
