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Why Vetrimaaran is the most interesting director in Tamil films today

Vetrimaaran is arguably among the most interesting filmmaker working in the tamil film industry. here’s documenting his rise and what it takes to be a talent like him..

His production house’s name, Grass Root Film Company, is a clear pointer to Vetrimaaran’s worldview. This Deepavali’s biggest release in Tamil Nadu is, arguably, Kodi (Flag), a political thriller he has produced that stars Dhanush in his first double role, as twin brothers. The twins may be identical but their natures are mutually exclusive. Refreshingly, Kodi casts Trisha as a feisty woman politico, giving Dhanush’s eponymous hero a run for his money.

“For a hero movie, it’s pretty decently written,” pronounces Baradwaj Rangan, film critic and associate editor at The Hindu. “There’s a conflict, there are surprises and even within a commercial film, it’s properly written and directed. It’s not some random moments strung together to get people whistling.”

The film’s premise is how politics and political interests shape communities and the quality of their life. In this case, it involves skullduggery surrounding a factory emitting toxic effluents. It could be happening not too far away from our backyards.

At the Oscars

Vetrimaaran himself, however, was conspicuous by his absence during Kodi’s promos. He has a bigger task on hand. Visaaranai (Interrogation), the part-docudrama, part-crime thriller he directed, is India’s official entry to the 89th Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category. So he is in the US persuading jurors take note of his film, which has some truly hairy torture scenes. The last Tamil film that made it to the Oscars was 16 years back: Hey Ram starring Kamal Haasan.

Usually, the choice of any film to represent the country at the Oscars polarises critics, but Visaaranai remains largely unchallenged. Rangan agrees. “Visaaranai was a fantastic film.”

It tells the story of innocent migrant labourers picked up and tortured by the police to extract a false confession for a fatal robbery at an influential man’s house. How the film, shot in 42 days on a Rs 2-crore budget and eventually wining three National Film Awards, got made is interesting. After his Aadukalam in 2011, Vetrimaaran had busied himself with his production ventures, Udhayam NH4, Poriyaalan and Kaaka Muttai. When he was prepared to shoot his next, the script he picked was Soodhadi, a story on gambling, proposing Dhanush in the lead role. However, the actor had to take time off to work in Balki’s Shamitabh, being shot in Mumbai.

Vetrimaaran was mooting a book adaptation when director Balu Mahendra’s assistant serendipitously presented him with Lock Up, a riveting, partly autobiographical book written by M Chandrakumar, a former autorickshaw driver. The book, which took five years to write and another four to publish, narrates his harrowing experience while in jail in (then) Andhra Pradesh.

“When I pitched the story to Dhanush, who later produced the film, I said I can only guarantee you a three-day weekend run at the box office. But it’s a low-budget venture; you’ll get your investment back,” Vetrimaaran laughs. “Dhanush was amused, but agreed to fund the project. [I thought] it’s the kind of film that would not bring in repeat audiences. I was proved wrong and it got a good three-week run.”

The author, Chandrakumar, was incarcerated for a fortnight way back in 1983. “Yet his experiences are relevant even today,” points out Vetrimaaran. “Visaaranai reflects a stark reality from which you cannot shut yourself out: that is its success. It was challenging to find the right kind of actors and locations. We employed real stuntmen who could exercise restraint while beating up the actors.”

“What was unique was that there were a lot of first-time actors in the film; that added rawness to it,” says K Hariharan, filmmaker and critic. “Actors like Samuthirakkani and Kishore were entirely on the sidelines. That made it an interesting watch.”

Astutely, the team decided to send it to international film fests right away, confident it would work with foreign audiences. Visaaranai premiered at the Orrizonti section of the 72nd Venice Film Festival, a first for a Tamil film, and won the Amnesty International Italia Award. Crucially, the European audience was exposed to a hitherto unexplored form of Tamil cinema that dealt with grim reality in a non-dramatic but powerful way.

“Europeans have a different policing system. They found my narrative a bit harsh, though they were moved,” explains Vetrimaaran.

A rooted voice

It is Vetrimaaran’s preoccupation with sometimes gritty, sometimes heartwarming reality that makes this 41-year-old one of the best filmmakers of our times.

“The best thing about the regional filmmakers is that they bring in a very ‘native’ feel,” says Rangan. “Like if I watch Nagraj Manjule’s Sairat for instance, I find [elements] that remind me of Vetrimaaran. But that’s more because these filmmakers do these ‘rooted’ things very well. They give you the sense of the atmosphere, the rhythms of life in that particular environment, they take care to bring them alive.”

His critically acclaimed debut venture, Polladhavan (Ruthless Man) in 2007, followed a lower middle-class young man’s search for his stolen bike, an exercise that takes him through the seamy underworld. Four years later came Aadukalam (Arena), a Pongal release that raked in six National Film Awards. The cockfight arena was where love, ego, honour, friendship and betrayal were played out in the rustic backdrop of Madurai.

Says Manimaran, long-time friend and assistant, “Vetri used to like watching cockfights in the neighbourhood in our hometown. So he thought we could develop a story around them.”

There was no doubt about who would play the lead. “I wrote Aadukalam keeping Dhanush in mind,” says Vetrimaaran. “As an actor, he delivers exactly what I need and sometimes more. As a producer, he offers me complete freedom and does not interfere at all. He trusts me completely.”

Rangan explains the Vetrimaaran touch, “There is a world of difference in the way he uses the song and dance elements in Polladhavan and Aadukalam. They have become more organic and rooted; they’re not fantasy elements.”

“I personally prefer Aadukalam to Visaaranai, but it’s like comparing apples and oranges,” says Hariharan. “Aadukalam had a certain kind of warmth and spontaneity. Visaaranai, to me, looked rather staged.”

He explains, “Visaaranai’s [appeal across the world] is that for the first time in Tamil cinema, you see this kind of brute reality without the director taking recourse to a love story or family drama. It’s also interesting that a country like India allowed such a strongly critical film on the system. There’s no doubt that Vetrimaaran is a bold filmmaker.”

Vetrimaaran’s productive chemistry with Dhanush has paid rich dividends. The two went on to produce Kaaka Muttai (Crow’s Egg) in 2015, a subversive film poking fun at what is regarded as cool - pizzas, in this case. This little gem, premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival, tracks two brothers from a Chennai slum dying to taste a pizza. Directed by M Manikandan with wit, not once is the children’s dignity compromised. Their family struggles in a heartless and corrupt city and soon we find ourselves cheering for our little heroes. Kaaka Muttai pocketed two National Film Awards.

“There is a stamp of quality that people have begun to associate with Vetrimaaran, because even the films he produces are pretty decent,” says Rangan, adding that he looks for, and gets, that certain quality.

Vetrimaaran’s genius lies in shining a light on people we would not even glance at in our rat race. His films show us that ordinary people often lead extraordinary lives if only we stop to talk to them.

Smitten by cinema

Born in Cuddalore near Puducherry and raised in Ranipet, a suburban town in Vellore district, two and a half hours from Chennai, Vetrimaaran was smitten by cinema even as a child. His mother, a writer, ran a school in the area, while his father was a veterinarian. Friends remember him as a film buff who watched every movie that came to town.

“He would bunk classes and watch them, each three or four times. Then he would come to the school ground where we used to hang out until 7:30 in the evening and would retell the whole story to us. My friends and I have actually walked out of the theatre at times because the film was nowhere as good as his narration. He still has that quality,” says Manimaran, his assistant.

Vetrimaaran was in his second year of Masters in English Literature in 1999 when the now-deceased filmmaker Balu Mahendra was invited to judge a short film contest at the Loyola College, Chennai. Shortly afterwards, he attended a seminar conducted by the director and was inspired enough to assist him in Julie Ganapathy, Athu Oru Kanaa Kaalam and the television series Kadhai Neram.

Athu Oru Kanaa Kaalam cemented his friendship with the lead actor, Dhanush, whom he describes as his best friend. While still assisting Balu Mahendra, Vetrimaaran pitched the story of Desiya Nedunchalai, and the actor readily agreed to play the lead.

Recalls Manimaran, “Producers were not hard to come by because we had Dhanush. But a few had misgivings about how Vetri would handle the project as a newcomer. So we tossed aside that script, which I later made into Udhayam NH4.”

The initial years proved to be rough. “I was pitching different scripts to different people for three years and it was the sixth producer who okayed Polladhavan,” says Vetrimaaran on his directorial debut.

Adds Manimaran, who assisted him in the project, “After the film was edited, we were really scared to show it to the producer. We kept stalling the screening telling him it may not have come out as he expected. Finally, when he saw it, he was satisfied. We were relieved and gradually grew confident.”

Pushing for excellence

When Manimaran himself forayed into direction with Udhayam NH4 in 2013, Vetrimaaran returned the favour by stepping in as producer under his banner, Grass Root Film Company. As he puts it, “I want my production house to be a platform for good, interesting ideas. I can find a producer for my films, but others, who may be first-time filmmakers, might have innovative scripts that mainstream producers might not understand. Like Kaaka Muttai for instance.

“I produce films in partnership as I may not be able to afford the entire budget. Dhanush ends up co-producing some of them as our tastes are similar. None of my producers ever ask me for the budget. I always make sure it is within their means and I can give the desired returns.”

For someone who has been successful both commercially as critically, Vetrimaaran has directed only three films in nine years. “For me, every film is a learning process. After each, I take time to unlearn. Then I find new content, learn it completely and then execute it.”

Manimaran describes his working process thus, “Many directors make changes to the script on the spot. But Vetrimaaran is different because he pays attention to detail. He puts in a lot of effort, so there may be last-minute adjustments with lighting and locations. Unlike working with other directors, you need to be available 24 hours.”

Outside of work, the father of two, who met his wife Aarthi while at college, likes to race pigeons, pretty much like the characters he portrays. His rootedness has also led him to voice the germ of an idea: setting up an organic farm eventually.

Rangan describes grit as the definitive quality of Vetrimaaran’s films, and praises his skill in animating the atmosphere in terms of the integrity of the characters, the plot, and the texture. “The way he shapes the characters and writes them, you feel that these are not [just] individual people; you get a sense of where they come from, where they belong. [They’re] not just some random characters floating around.”

His fans are already talking about his fourth film, Vada Chennai (North Chennai), an ambitious gangster trilogy he has been planning since 2003. After undergoing several changes of scripts and stars, Dhanush, Vijay Sethupathi, Amala Paul and Samuthirakkani are among those confirmed on the project that is currently under way. Slated for release next year, Vada Chennai is also bound to have the by-now classic Vetrimaaran stamp.

(Published in arrangement with GRIST Media.)

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Vetrimaran Name Meaning: What Makes It Different

The name Vetrimaran attracts compassion, determination and flexibility.

Letter Analysis

Life Lesson & Challenge: In the case of the name Vetrimaran, since the first vowel is 'E', the life lesson is connected to this person enjoying their ability to think outside of the box, whilst the life challenge touches on refraining from self-criticism and looking down on themselves.

Spirituality Charge: Remarkable

Name Numerology

Vetrimaran Name Numerology: 4

Blessed Careers: Mechanical Services, Medicine, Information technology or similar.

Name Number 4 Qualities

Love Aspects of Name Number 4

Name Compatibility

The name Vetrimaran is suited next to first names beginning with V, K & Y, but at the same time doesn't sit well with last names starting with H, M & S.

Letter & Numerology Insights

The Cornerstone: V

The Capstone: N

Entourage Insight

This name is likely to be surrounded by enthusiastic and intuitive people, in addition, one should steer clear of obstinate and tactless people.

Name Vibration

On the Omega consciousness scale, the vibrational energy of the name Vetrimaran echoes the Acceptance level.

Vetrimaran Name Symbols

Name Color: Green

Lucky numbers

Odd or Even Year?

Lucky Weekday: Wednesday

Favorable Month: May

Lucky Gemstone: Diamond

Animal Spirit: Coyote

Plant Spirit: Snapdragon

Sign Language

Eida Goodman

There's more..., destiny number meaning: what it means for your life, life path numerology: discover the invisible forces in your life, name numerology: the personality meaning of each letter, the life path numbers in romance: what kind of lover are you.

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Meaning of vetrimaran name.

• Gender of Vetrimaran Name Boy
• Lucky elements in Name of Vetrimaran Click Here
• Numerology for Vetrimaran Name Click Here
• Letter Analysis for Vetrimaran Name Click Here

Check your Rashi Compatibility as Father with Vetrimaran Name

• Aquarius (Kumbh),
• Aries (Mesh),
• Cancer (Karka),
• Capricorn (Makara),
• Gemini (Mithun),
• Leo (Sinha),
• Libra (Tula),
• Pisces (Meen),
• Sagittarius (Dhanu),
• Scorpio (Vrushchik),
• Taurus (Vrushabh),
• Virgo (Kanya),

Check your Rashi Compatibility as Mother with Vetrimaran Name

• Vowels in Name of Vetrimaran E , I , A
• Other Similar Names like Vetrimaran Vetrival , Vetrivel , Vetri , Vettiselvan , Vettymani , Vetri , Vettri , Vetaben , Vetasini , Vetrival , Vetrivel , Vetrichelvan , Vetrivadivel , VetriOli , Vetrivela , VetriVelan , VetriVel , Vetrivelu , vetrivikas , Vettrivel
• Popular in Country India
• Origin of Vetrimaran Name India
• Pronunciation of Vetrimaran Name

Flag Spell Style of Vetrimaran

• Other Similar Rhymes Names like Vetrimaran Charan , Dheeran , Gajkaran , Gursharan , Gurcharan , Gurucharan , Gurusharan , Gunasekaran , Haricharan , Haritbaran , Harisharan , Hariharan , Imran , Imaran , Jayachandran , Kyran , Kalicharan , Kamran , Kumaran , Laran
• Vetrimaran Name Mostly Spoken in Hindi Speaking Countries
• Characters in Vetrimaran Name 10
• Name in local language of Vetrimaran , , , ,
• Check Vetrimaran at Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vetrimaran
• SoulUrge Number of Vetrimaran Name 7
• Expression Number of Vetrimaran Name 4
• Personality Number of Vetrimaran Name 6
• Hidden Passion Number of Vetrimaran Name 9
• Length of name of Vetrimaran 10

Finger Spell Style of Vetrimaran

Brail Spell Style of Vetrimaran

Morse Spell Style of Vetrimaran

Barcode Spell Style of Vetrimaran

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Is your name Vetrimaran ? or Do you know anyone with the name Vetrimaran? Please share with us your thoughts on the name and its traits as observed by you.

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Vetri Maaran: A vital link between Tamil cinema and literature 

On his birthday, let's take a look at how vetri maaran is sustaining the trend of film adaptations in tamil cinema.

Tamil filmmakers have seldom recognized the untapped potential of Tamil literature. The argument that Tamil cinema is too ‘masala’ for it to borrow from literature doesn’t hold water because Tamil literature doesn’t just have ‘serious’ and ‘deep’ books. It has a humongous repository of pulp fiction. For every intense work like Pa Singaram’s Puyalilae Oru Thoni, there’s one gripping page-turner like Sujatha’s Ratham Orae Niram or Rajkumar’s Kaatrin Niram Karuppu. Thus, it is dumbfounding when stars complain about the paucity of good stories from filmmakers.

However, novel adaptations in Tamil are not entirely nonexistent. It is an age-old phenomenon. Films like Jayakanthan’s Unnaipol Oruvan (which received a National Award in 1965), Rajinikanth ’s Priya (1978), Karaiyellam Shenbagapoo (1981), and Kamal Haasan ’s Vikram (1986) are some of the notable examples. Yet, these are just flashes in the pan. A sustained trend of film adaptations hasn’t happened in contemporary Tamil cinema. But filmmaker Vetri Maaran seems to be giving some hope.

The National Award-winning filmmaker has so far directed five feature films of which two are adaptations of Tamil novels. His upcoming films Viduthalai and Vaadivasal are also based on Tamil literary works, which makes Vetri Maaran, a vital link between Tamil literature and cinema. Not just that, he has also cracked the formula of using serious literature for making commercial films.

Literature and Vetri Maaran

The relationship between literature and Vetri Maaran should have begun way early in his childhood as his mom Megala Chitravel is a noted Tamil novelist. On top of that, the director also studied English literature at Loyola College, Chennai . When he wanted to work with his mentor, prolific filmmaker Balu Mahendra, it was his knowledge of literature that aided him to get the opportunity. In an interview with Tamil magazine Anandha Vikatan, Vetri Maaran shared that Balu Mahendra asked him to come up with a synopsis for a novel as part of his interview process for the assistant director role. Though only his third film, Visaaranai (National Award-winning film and official Indian entry to the 89th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film) turned out to be his first adaptation, one can see that his tryst with written words has been an integral part of his journey.

Making literature mainstream

One of the criticisms against Asuran, Vetri Maaran’s film adaptation of Poomani’s Vekkai (Heat), is that the story was commercialised and unfaithful to the source material. Yet, his mainstream treatment of the novel is what contributed to the film’s commercial success. Vetri Maaran gave a ‘Baasha’ twist to Poomani’s novel, which turned the layered novel into a story of an underdog.

Vekkai is about Sivasamy and his 15-year-old son Chidambaram, who are on the run from the police after the latter kills an upper caste man Vadakooran to avenge the murder of his elder brother. As the dad and son spend around eight days in the forest hiding, the story of oppression and caste politics unfolds. The novel is devoid of heroism and deals with everyday people and their excruciating pain. Vetri Maaran made a significant change in his film by making Sivasamy the ‘hero’ of the film, while in the book, Chidambaram is the ‘protagonist’. Also, Dhanush ’s Sivasamy is an entirely different person from the one we find in Poomani’s book. In addition, the entire backstory of Sivasamy, which depicts him as a rebellious young man, is absent in the novel. This made Dhanush’s Sivasamy a familiar trope of mainstream cinema – a man with a violent past. This vital change made the film accessible to all sections of the audience.

However, critics of Vetri Maaran are also not wrong. A faithful remake of the film aided by Vetri’s brilliant cinematic language would have yielded a far better cinema, but it would have been a gamble when it comes to the business aspect of the film. One should only look at Vetri Maaran’s attempts as a small step in the right direction.

Challenges ahead with Vaadivasal

I am looking forward to seeing what he does with CS Chellapa’s novella Vaadivasal. The story of the novel doesn’t have enough meat for a typical Tamil feature film as it is just a story of events happening in one day at a Jallikattu event. A guy named Picchi arrives at a neighbouring village for the jallikattu event. He wants to tame the frightening bull named Kaari, which killed Picchi’s father years ago. That’s all there is to the story of the novella. Yet, it stands as a brilliant literary piece for its dialect and the depiction of caste politics in the sport of jallikattu. It would make up for a great cinema if Vetri Maaran recreates everything faithfully on screen.

Yet, I wouldn’t be surprised if the director opts for an entire flashback portion for Picchi’s father (Reports, already suggest that Suriya is playing a dual role in the film).  Despite the commercialisation, such adaptations continue to sustain the importance of literature. I mean without the film adaptations, the mainstream would have remained unaware of these literary gems.

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