Virumandi

The story goes like this - Virumaandi (Kamalhassan) who is waiting for death sentence for crimes that he has not committed and Kothala Thevar (Pasupathy) serving life imprisonment after killing many innocents. Maybe there is redemption yet as Angela Kathamuthu (Rohini) a documentary film-maker and a fierce critic of capital punishment comes to the central jail in Chennai to make a TV documentary on this sensitive issue.The two protagonists are initially reluctant to speak but later confess their respective side of the same story and Angela is able to bond with them more out of duress than choice and is slowly sucked in as the videotaping turns dangerous! Kamalhassan weaves together real life incidents; fantasy and imagination with a chilling motif - people are not what they appear to be.Virumaandi is a film both told in the present and past which makes it slow paced. The film at times looks arty with its documentary approach to story telling. The double narrative with typical Theni dialect is confusing at times. Virumaandi is a brave man, a lovable rascal for the villagers of Chinnakkolarpatti in Theni district. He is emotional about his friends and will do anything for their sake including taking part in jallikattu (bull fighting). His biggest supporter is Supputhayi, his grandmother who always reminds him that he owns the most fertile pieces of land in the village as it has “Liquid Gold”- water.A local chieftain and influential man Kothala Thevar (Pasuathy) eyes Virumaandi’s property though they are good friends. Kothala’s niece, Annalachumi (Abhirami) is a bold, aggressive girl who travels in a moped and runs her own poultry farm and rears Sorimuttu, a jallikattu bull, whom Virumaandi defeats and she falls in love with him! In Kothala’s fight against another chieftain Nallamanicker (Napolean), Virumaandi supports him to the hilt. Slowly but tactfully Kothala frames Virumaandi but Annalachumi helps him and they elope to a nearby village and get married.But Kothala traces them with the help of a corrupt police officer Paykamman (Shanmugham) and she is brought back to be humiliated and get forcefully married to Kottaichami. But Annalachumi commits suicide in disgrace and Virumaandi is now on a rampage and is helped by Nallamanickar. But in a twist of events Virumaandi is caught and sentenced to death for killing 24 innocent people and abducting and raping Annalachumi. But Kothala who surrenders is only given a life imprisonment. Now Angela changes her tape as the film moves to a bloody climax in the jail. (Ayngaran International)