Vetrimaaran’s Visaaranai will be India’s official entry for the 2017 Oscars under the Foreign Language Film category. A Tamil-language crime thriller, the movie features Samuthirakani, Dinesh, Anandhi and Aadukalam Murugadoss in the lead roles.
Based on a novel titled Lock Up by M. Chandrakumar, Visaaranai made its debut in 2015 at the 72nd Venice Film Festival. It won Amnesty International Italy’s ‘Cinema for Human Rights’ award at the Film Festival. The movie also went on to win three National awards for best feature film, best supporting actor and best editor.
Visaaranai primarily deals with police brutality, corruption, and political treason. The movie went on to become one of the best films of Tamil cinema. While many Tamil films in the past like Deiva Magan(1969), Nayakan(1987), Anjali(1990) were submitted to the Oscars, none of the films made it to the final nomination. The last Tamil film to be submitted under this category was Kamal Haasan’s Hey Ram in 2000.
Read: Visaaranai Review – No Country For Noble Men
Visaaranai was selected as the Oscar entry by a special committee appointed by the Film Federation of India (FFI). The committee chooses one film among those released that year to be submitted as India’s official entry to the Academy for a nomination for “Best Foreign Language Film” the following year.
Interestingly, superstar Rajinikanth on a rather prophetic note, tweeted that the movie will find Tamil cinema a fitting place in the world cinema after watching the film in February. He added that he had never seen a Tamil film like Visaaranai after it’s release.
விசாரணை மாதிரி ஒரு படத்தை தமிழில் நான் இது வரை பார்த்ததில்லை. உலக படவரிசையில் ஒரு தமிழ் படம்.வாழ்த்துக்கள் வெற்றிமாறன் – தனுஷ்
— Rajinikanth (@superstarrajini) February 4, 2016
The 89th Academy Awards is scheduled to take place on February 26, 2017.
