Veerappan

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A 360-degree camera spin follows this Voltaire quote, and you find yourself surrounded by a dense forest and trumpeting tuskers. This territory belongs to Veerappan, a killing machine who counts LTTE chief Prabhakaran as his inspiration. You wish to know more about this rugged man, and a child appears with a camera mounted over his shoulders. The kid takes you on a time warp and loud background score ensures you remain stuck there for a while. And then you breathe, recognise and realise it is that Ram Gopal Varma touch. Welcome to the world of omnipresent cameras.Now, to the film's story: Different task forces couldn't kill or capture Veerappan (Sandeep Bhardwaj) in more than 15 years, so the project has been handed over to a no-nonsense cop (Sachin Joshi), who hasn't been given a name in the film. He involves Shriya (Lisa Ray), an untrained civilian, in a highly confidential plan to eliminate Veerappan for reasons best known to Varma.Though we know what happened on October 18, 2004, the day Veerappan was killed, we still sit in anticipation of RGV's trademark storytelling, if we can ignore bad acting and touches like a candle in an already well lit room. There is a straight lift from Sholay as well. Who said RGV is out of his Aag hangover! The disappointment grows when the script fails to produce any grip over the characters. Nobody other than Bhardwaj looks serious about the film. Thanks to his make-up artist, he reminds the viewer of the dreaded man from the beginning, but he has a gang that looks absolutely out of sync. The cop, Joshi, takes this cluelessness many notches higher by inviting Lisa Ray to the interrogation room holding one of Veerappan's aides. She breathes heavily, almost orgasmically, and it all becomes so ridiculous that you wonder who will faint first -- Ray or the bandit?Other characters bring no relief despite Varma's flourishes of using camera from unexpected angles. The attempt to produce a taut thriller is hampered by the fact Veerappan states the obvious. Rather than how and why of the dreaded smuggler's rise in the border areas of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, it seeks refuge in dishing out the details of Operation Cocoon. Instead of diving deep into Veerappan's past, there is an effort to create a positive halo around him. At a point, he candidly describes how he received only Rs 7 lakh out of the total Rs 9 crore ransom in the kidnapping of Kannada superstar, Dr Rajkumar. The basic idea is to present it as a morally ambiguous story where the good can also use evil means, but that isn't enough. Having said that, this 126-minute film has pace and a narrative technique which may give you a glimpse of RGV's old charm. But, the mojo isn't completely back yet.

It cannot be said that Veerappan is a very entertaining movie. Although, one feels there was enough material to make it so. Revolving around the eponymous forest brigand , the story line is strange since it is not very impactful. Presumably it would be hard for the audience to decide how to perceive the film. There is a shabby effort to add suspense and develop plots . This seems shoddy since everyone knows the main business of the movie. The background score is very ordinary and raucous , doesn't go well with the setting. However, what spoils the show is the acting . Lisa Ray's acting is very poor . Partly due to her own limited skills as an actress , partly due to the director's misjudgment and substandard character development. Sandeep Bhardwaj does a little better , however the most genuine aspect of his character are the moustaches. The cast from Crime Patrol (SET) does a fairly good job invoking their vast experience in police drama genre. The rest of the cast either underacts or overacts. Without exception. All said and done , had the actors been given better developed characters to play and more interesting dialogue even they could have done better. That not being the case the movie falls way below par. That is all there is to it, I am afraid.

Superb direction acting by all. Seemed riveting like Madras cafe with focus on main plot. well done Ramu. loved it thoroughly. Veerapan looked exactly like real but lead Police officer i.e Joshi lacked intensity (may be his character demanded it). I truly believe that the way story has been told by Ramu kept interest alive throughout the movie and its worth watching time and again.

Lets leave how the movie has been taken or how the screenplay is though its awful. Just because the director has a background of gangster movies he cannot manipulate the story of a real person who actually lived. Many facts in the film are cooked up just to show veerappan as a horrifying villain. I have grown up reading news about veerappan and knowing many facts about his life, for me this film is nothing but a absolute nonsense. Its not just the director who knew about veerappan everyone who is above 20 years knew about him just the same way the director has known. Just the first 5 mins of the movie made me understand how horribly the movie has been made and the first scene of veerappan mutilating a police by chopping off his limbs, man seriously how come you invented some crap like this. Before taking a movie about a person at least try to know some facts about him, don't just bring your imagination on the screen.

Calling a freedom fighter a terrorist in this.. the so claimed terrorist mentioned for 2 seconds in this movie (Have to mention the irrelevance?) at approximately 16'12 min (16:12) out of no where- Is a hero who fought for his people to live peacefully in a land they called home for generations. Which decades later still cannot peacefully be called home. The name doesn't suit the movie, I don't know anything regarding the real "Veerapan" or his auto biography. Veeram means bravery/courage in my language, relating a real hero to terrorism is absurd. Just the voice of a first generation Sri Lankan Tamil living in Canada.

There is only one amazing thing in this film and that is casting of Sandeep Bhardwaj as Veerappan. He is so excellent that you have to constantly remind yourself that he is an actor not Veerappan. His expression, body language, personality and eyes are impeccable for this role. Film is unnecessarily violent. Many flashes of elephant being shot, persons are being chopped with axe and face being crushed with stone. One time was bearable but many times and even in flashback. What! They want to establish Veerappan brutality who is already extra established for his insane ruthlessness. Lacking production value is another hindrance. There is no para-military forces or joint military operation with state Police. Crossing inter state border in front of chasing state Police by Veerappan and his gang looks like that few kids have crossed village border. They prefer to show a single police officer handling the complete operation, going to chase him in childish disguise, by fixing fake long beard over stubble, getting caught then escaping by dropping a waist pouch, which blasts like dusty atom bomb. They try to stuff comedy in this film too, like Veerappan wife lamenting like a common wife of her hardship in forest, a Police personal joking that Veerappan should be invited for birthday this way they will catch him. Police personal widow joking to Veerappan wife that her husband is Osama Bin Laden. What were all this!? Sorry to say but it was not comedy but over creative slap. Film is completely boring. Long montages of Police widow befriending with Veerappan wife. Then convincing her to call his husband to a farm house!? Suddenly a terrorist angle surfaces and sinks without notice. This film is based on amateur rumor rather than on deep research. If all things were fact then there was no need to make a film on it. Torturing with high BP causing injection with an antidote of it!? Climax scene is so lame that Police officer is having coffee while waiting to arrange Veerapan encounter. All scenes are just for the sake of makers.

When a movie comes out about Veerappan, and there have been quite a few, that too from the RGV camp, your hopes run high. But like most his recent movies this disappoints. Three minutes into the movie and I was thinking how to endure the next two hours of this mindless, poorly scripted, poorly scored movie. It is somewhat painful to see the descent of RGV, the filmmaker who mastered the art of Indian gangster movies and carved a name in the horror/thriller genre. This movie is completely passable except the short and natural performance by Usha Jhadhav who plays Veerappan's wife. Overall the movie has nothing more to offer than what you might have already seen in the trailers. What surprises me, the earlier movie by the same director "Killing Veerappan" garnered much more praise and was undoubtedly a better crafted movie. Why he took the pain of shooting another version?

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