Film

Viduthalai: Part I

Name: Viduthalai: Part I
Genre: Action, Thriller, Drama
Released: 2023
Cast: Soori, Bhavani Sre, Chetan, Gautham Vasudev Menon, Rajiv Menon

Police procedural
Very dark

A Tamil-language political thriller about a police constable drawn into a manhunt for a separatist leader whose uprising stems from documented police brutality against village women. Director Vetrimaaran's film is deliberately ambiguous about whose violence is justified, treating both sides with unsettling moral seriousness. It's urgent, claustrophobic, and demands attention.

TMDb rating

4.0

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a political thriller grounded in police brutality and rural struggle, where the moral questions weigh as heavily as the chase and the filmmaking is patient, textured and unflinching.

Skip it if you want a brisk, self-contained thriller, since this is slow to settle, brutal in stretches and the first half of a longer story.

What it asks of you: Nearly two and a half hours of deliberate, grim going, where the pace builds through patient observation rather than set-piece bursts, and the mood rarely lifts.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Jai Bhim2021

Another Tamil film that puts police brutality and systemic injustice at its centre, but told from the perspective of those fighting back. Courtroom drama with genuine stakes and a legal system revealed as weaponized against the poor.

But Deliberately paced and quietly furious rather than conventionally thrilling. The injustices shown are not comfortable to sit with.

Natrang2010

A Marathi film about a man drawn into a separatist movement, exploring how ideology and performance blur until you cannot separate conviction from theater. Shares Viduthalai's fascination with charisma as a political force.

But Slower and more formally experimental than expected. The final act is deliberately unresolved and philosophically bleak.

Article 152019

An Indian police procedural that systematically unpicks how institutions protect their own while exploiting the vulnerable. Ayushmann Khurrana in a rare straight role investigating crimes police themselves committed.

But More conventional in structure than Viduthalai. It builds toward solutions rather than sitting in contradiction.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Viduthalai: Part I

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Act of Killing2012

Both explore how paramilitaries and police justify atrocity through ideology, and what happens when you refuse to look away from their reasoning.

A documentary where Indonesian death-squad leaders are asked to recreate their massacres on film. It's a radical inversion: instead of hunting the guilty, you sit with them as they perform their own mythology. Both films ask what happens when violence becomes identity.

But Extraordinarily difficult to watch. It does not judge or resolve; it simply documents how perpetrators understand themselves. Some will find it complicit.

Rang De Basanti2006

Young people radicalized by witnessing systemic corruption. It's a Bollywood film that takes revolutionary ideology seriously and asks hard questions about how far you go when institutions fail.

But More populist and hopeful than Viduthalai. Some action sequences feel dated and the tone can veer melodramatic.

Uski Kahani1966

A woman navigating Mumbai's indifferent bureaucracy and police negligence to pursue justice alone. Tight, suspenseful, and corrosive about state failure without ever becoming preachy.

But More of a revenge-thriller than a political examination. The scale is smaller and more intimate.

Gulaal2009

A young man pulled into student politics and revolutionary movements that promise idealism but deliver cynicism and violence. About how radical movements corrupt themselves from within.

But Convoluted plot with too many threads. Anurag Kashyap's style can feel deliberately difficult rather than illuminating.

Madras2014

Two young men from opposing Tamil separatist factions forced to live as neighbours. Vetraimaaran's earlier film examines how identity and geography determine your politics as much as conviction.

But Even harder to watch than Viduthalai — the final act is genuinely devastating and offers no catharsis.

Aurangzeb2013

A cop thriller that slowly reveals systematic corruption throughout the police force, forcing the protagonist to question which side he's actually on. Tense and morally murky throughout.

But Takes a while to reveal its hand. Early scenes feel like standard police-action until the ideology kicks in.

Shamantakamani2017

A Kannada film following a man's quiet descent into righteous fury at his powerlessness against a system designed to ignore him. Spare and devastating in its simplicity.

But Very slow and internally focused. There is minimal external action — this is a film about a man thinking.

Stalker1979

Both are structured as journeys where ideological argument IS the drama. Both ask whether institutions and movements are corrupted or inevitable.

A Soviet science-fiction film about a guide taking two men through a mysterious zone to find a room that grants wishes. Utterly different register, but built on identical architecture: slow accumulation of moral argument, dialogue as the engine, ambiguity about who deserves what.

But Science fiction frame is minimal window-dressing. Essentially a three-hour philosophical conversation. If you want plot momentum, this will test you.

Kapoor & Sons2016

Both examine how ordinary people are caught in systems larger than themselves and forced to choose complicity or rebellion, with no good options.

A Bollywood family drama that uses a fractured household as metaphor for institutional collapse. Shares Viduthalai's interest in how corruption flows downward through systems until it reaches people you love.

But Entirely domestic and intimate rather than political. The scale is family, not nation. Some will find it too soft-focus compared to the film's moral urgency.