Film on auto driver's novel heads for Venice fest

Only Tamil movie selected for the festival

Visaranai (Inquiry) , a movie based on a first novel writ-ten by M Chandrakumar, an autorickshaw driver, is to be entered for the competitive session at the Venice International Film Festival.

This would be the first Tamil film to be selected for the festival. Directed by Vetrimaaran, a 40-year-old film producer, it was produced last year.

The novel, titled Lock-Up, was written in 2006, based on the author’s (a class X dropout) experience of police oppression and brutality in his early 20s, in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh.

He had fled from his home in Coimbatore to Guntur in his 20s in 1983. And, with three his friends, were illegally detained and beaten by the police for nearly 13 days, for a crime he did not commit.

Visaranai is the only Tamil film among the 20 movies selected among 2,000 from among 120 countries. The auto driver-turned-writer has since written many books, while continuing to ply his trade.