At the end of the first part, the confessions of Tamilar Makkal Pada leader Perumal Wathiyar and the police reactions are the online of the film ‘Vitudai Bhagam-2’.
The first part would have ended with Kumaresan, the leader of the Tamil People’s Force, who was protesting against the government’s permission to a multinational company to set up a mineral mine in a mountain village, arrested by Kumaresan, a shopkeeper. After that, the second part of the film Vimithu begins with Kumaresan reading the letter he wrote to his mother explaining the events that took place.
In the first part, director Vethimaran had uncompromisingly recorded the lives of the hill villagers and the violations by the police in the name of search and hunt, in the second part, he has recorded the personal life of the combatants and the pains of their families. The director has documented the life struggle of the activists in the digital age, which has been intertwined with absconding, arrests, tears and brutal deaths, and has taught a young generation a lesson in politics.
In the second part of the film, director Vethimaran has recorded various incidents such as the farm slavery system, the perversion of the farms that treat the women of the working community as their property, and the barbaric deaths due to demands for higher wages. Specifically, who is Perumal Vathiyar? How did he build this Tamil People’s Army? What are his basic philosophical principles? Who created him? What was his reason for taking up the armed struggle? That is the screenplay of the second part.
Although Vetimaaran has directed this film by taking only the central point of the short story ‘Thunaivan’ and mixing it with his imagination, it is accidental if many of the incidents discussed in the second part cast a shadow over the past political history of Tamil land. The movie, which speaks bloodily about the need and beginning of red and black politics in this land, stars Vijay Sethupathi, Suri, Manju Warrier, Gautham Vasudev Menon, Rajeev Menon, Prince, Subramania Siva, Chetan, director Tamil, Pavel, Balaji Shaktivel as a Bengal fighter. The contribution of everyone in the film as Anurag Kashyap comes and goes It adds strength to the film. Kishore’s natural performance in the role of Comrade KK contributes to the film. He lived as an old and experienced politician.
Vetrimaran has taken the oath in the love scenes in the film. The way Vijay Sethupathi and Manju Warrier exchange the unadulterated love of dirty and blood-stained activists is special. The scene where Manju Wariyar’s eye, which sparkles in every scene of the film, traps the principled Perumal Vathiyar in the ‘ink’ is well written. In particular, Vetrimaran has also given a wonderful explanation, realizing that many people who have seen the trailer feel sad about Manju Warriar’s hair being cut. No wonder the culture of cutting hair is on the rise.
Caste, class, labor wages, resource theft, human rights violations, government action, police anarchy, all the incidents that come in the second part are the news that we pass in the press and media even today. But this film speaks volumes about the flesh and blood of many activists who were mercilessly killed and dismembered behind the rights that many enjoy today, from wearing sandals to working wages, weekly holidays, pay hikes, Diwali and Pongal bonal.
Vijay Sethupathi has scored in many dimensions as a school boy, law abiding man, communist activist, association forming trade unionist, armed struggle leader, lover, husband. His counterpart Manju Warrier is captivating. Cinematographer Velraj’s work is amazing in the second part. In the film, Prince has fun with camera movements at various points in the film, from the scene where he interacts with Rajeev Menon, Subramania Siva and the police officer.
Ken’s way of visualizing the upcoming fight scene is amazing. Similarly, Velraj has enthralled our eyes with his camera lens as the scenes of the final scene, the search and hunt, narrate the story of Vijay Sethupathi. Ilayaraja threatens in the background music. His music penetrates our ears with the smoothness of the guitar in the romantic scenes and the tension of the trombone in the violent scenes.
Within the two and a half hours he got, Vetrimaran tries to tell all the social injustices that have happened and are happening in this society. This creates the appearance of slowing down the image. Especially, in the first half, there is a lot of propaganda going on here and there. It could have been avoided. But, at the same time, “When we start working to unite the people of land, race and language, we will not be able to do politics with the arguments of caste, religion and division that you have built”, “Violence is not in our language, but we know how to speak that language too”, “Leaders without philosophy are fans.” “Only they will create, it will not help progress” and his eloquent verses have gone to the roots and made the underworld.
Similarly, in the second part, Suri is reading a letter explaining the events. On top of that the story of Vijay Sethupathi is told. In between, scenes and dialogues take place where the arrested Vijay Sethupathi is being safely transported to an alternate location. Due to this, many dialogues could not be heard in full as the dialogues would be overlaid before the end of one verse and the next. Although the songs in the film are pleasant to listen to, it only feels like an unnecessarily fitted interlude. There is a lot of blood splattered in the violent scenes in the film. Vethimaran’s politics is evident in places where armed struggle and violence do not lead to liberation, and where people’s right to vote is more dangerous than weapons in a democratic country.
Vethimaran, who dares to take a life to save the life of 5 people, tears the wasteful thinking of the government institutions with his sharp dialogue. The way the characters and scenes in the film are described is very appealing. It is special that the government has taught a lesson that if a person, a family, a street or a town is affected by any project brought by the government in the name of development, it should approach the victim by standing on the side of the victim.
In commercial streets, bus stands, railway stations, public places, parks and crowded places we have seen people carrying bills with communist movement flags. They collect the funds by handing out pamphlets explaining why they are collecting funds. Those pamphlets contain words such as state terror, imperialism, autocracy, class, capitalism, dictatorship, oppression, race, democracy, socialism, revolution, which are not spoken once in our daily life. What are all these? What are they referring to? This ‘Liberation Part-2’ is the beginning of the search for!
