Amnesty won "Visaaranai", the first Tamil film to be tested for Oscars

Tamil Film industry is going through a mile stone as , Visaaranai, the first Tamil film to be submitted at the Oscars this millennium, stands a strong chance because it is devoid of the frills of Indian commercial cinema. It has been 16 long years since a Tamil film was chosen as India’s submission for the Academy Awards.

A thriller in Tamil language has been chosen as India’s official entry to the Best Foreign Language Film at next year’s Oscars.

Homeless young man is walking down a street after watching a late night movie in Guntur, a town in Andhra Pradesh in southern India. A police patrol halts by and asks his name.

“Afzal”, the man replies.

“al-Qaeda? Isis?” sneers a policeman.

“I’m a Tamil migrant worker,” he replies not comprehending, and is rudely rounded off to the police station for unending torture in custody.

This scene from Tamil film Visaranai (Interrogation), India’s official entry to the Oscars this year, sets the tone for this gritty crime drama on human rights violations.

The film won the Amnesty International Italia Award for focusing on human rights violations after it premiered in the Orrizonti section at the Venice International Festival this year, the first ever for a Tamil language film.

Actor-producer Dhanush, whose production venture Visaranai, today described the selection as a proud moment for his Wunderbar Films and the director, Vetrimaran.

“Proud moment for Wunderbar Films and Vetrimaran #Dreambig,” he wrote on Twitter.

He also thanked the Executive Producer of Wunderbar Films, S Vinod, the crew, press, media, well-wishers and cinema lovers and all those who watch movies in theatres. “It is a joyous moment for all of us,” he added.

After fifteen long years since Kamal Haasan’s ‘Hey Ram’, director Vetrimaaran’s path breaking film ‘Visaranai’ has been chosen to compete for the Oscars in the Best Foriegn Language Film category.

The last Tamil film to be submitted as India’s Oscar entry was Kamal Haasan’s ‘Hey Ram’ in the year 2000.