Chennai, Feb 12 (IANS) On the occasion of one of Tamil cinema's finest films 'Visaranai', completing 10 years, actor, producer and director Dhanush pointed out that the film was one that won hearts and that he was proud to call it a gem that was produced jointly by his production house and the production house of the film's director, Vetrimaran.

Taking to his X timeline to express his thoughts on the film, which not only won National Awards but international acclaim when it released, Dhanush wrote, "Ten years of Visaranai - a film that won hearts, Proud to call it a gem from Wunderbar Films and Grassroot film company."

The film, hailed as a cult classic, emerged a superhit when it first released. Jointly produced by actor Dhanush's Wunderbar Films and director Vetrimaran's Grassroots Film Company, the film featured actors Attakathi Dinesh, Samuthirakani, Aadukalam Murugadoss, Anandhi, Saravana Subbiah and Kishore among others.

'Visaranai' was based on a book called 'Lock Up', which was written by M Chandrakumar, an auto driver, who in his spare time, wrote about the torture he suffered at the hands of the police after being illegally detained for a crime he did not commit.

The film, which was critically acclaimed and celebrated by the audiences, bagged three National awards at the 63rd National Awards. It won the awards for Best Picture, for Best Supporting Actor (Samuthirakani) and for Best Editor(Kishore).

In fact, Dhanush, who had expressed delight at the honour, had then said, "Sometimes, even when we begin a project, we know that this film will reach a significant position. Visaranai is one such project. It has been both critically acclaimed and commercially successful. I am very happy for Samuthirakani and Editor Kishore. My happiness is three times more as the film has won three National Awards. "

He had gone on to thank director Vetrimaran saying, it had become his duty to thank Vetrimaran for given him three National Awards and that the fact that the Tamil audiences had accepted this film had given him both happiness and the drive to deliver more such films.

'Visaranai' won international acclaim, walking away with the Orizzonti Prize and the Amnesty International Italy Award at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival.

A report on the Amnesty International's Italian website had then quoted Riccardo Noury, spokesman for Amnesty International Italy, as having observed that, "Many other films in the festival have dealt with various aspects of human rights, with sensitivity and originality. But 'Visaaranai', taken from the experience of a survivor who is now an activist for human rights, has prevailed over the others, for the powerful manner of denunciation of the torture in the police stations of India."

--IANS

mkr/