Veerappan

Veerappan review :

That Ram Gopal Varma loves Dawood and his company staff is well known. He also adores Veerappan. No kidding doston; till date the maverick director has made atleast 3 films on Veerappan...'Jungle' (2000) featuring Urmila Matondkar and Fardeen Khan, the Kannada docu-drama 'Killing Veerappan' (2015) and now the hindi 'Veerappan' which released yesterday.

While I haven't seen the Kannada film, 'Jungle' didn't make a good impression on me because it came in the era when RGV had 'Rangeela', 'Satya' and 'Koun' as his calling cards. Not anymore!! Today, after a string of intolerable duds ('RGV Ki Aag', 'Department' to name just two...), RGV ka Veerappan appears a significant improvement over those turnips but still doesn't come close to 'Jungle' - forget the outstanding 'Satya' (1997) or 'Company' (2002). So basically, Ramuji pass hue (..after multiple failures) par second class mein...

Starting horridly, the first fifteen minutes of Veerappan resemble an orgy of blood and gore where humans are mercilessly hacked to small pieces, elephants are shot dead and their tusks uprooted - all this to a continuous onslaught of ear blasting background music screaming Veer Veer Veer Veer Veerappan!!!!

Things get better when Varma starts focusing on the operation helmed by a nameless cop (Sachiin Joshi) to nail the elusive criminal with help of a widow (Lisa Ray, still looking desirable) of a slain task force officer.

RGV employs hard core commercial elements to narrate the biopic - like replicating Gabbar's introduction scene from 'Sholay' (1975) to giving a Rashomonesque twist to Veerappan's daughters death.

Zareen Khan's sensuous item number is left out and I certainly missed that on the big screen.

Anyways, a few facets of Veerappan are interestingly captured like his idolising the LTTE chief Prabhakaran and his unfulfilled ambition to kidnap Superstar Rajinikanth.

On the flip side, Sachiin Joshi and Lisa Ray are pathetic casting decisions. The background score is too loud and distracting. Editing cuts are haphazard. The film's length appears long even at just over two hours.

Of the cast, Sandeep Bharadwaj, in the titular role, looks convincing. Usha Jadhav as Veerappan's wife is completely natural. Her emotions in the concluding scene are spot on.

After a long time, RGV has made a fairly decent film but the touch of 'Satya' is still missing. He's getting there though.....

Regards, Sumeet Nadkarni.

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.

There needs no introduction while talking about the most notorious person ever seen by India, Veerappan, he had vanished or killed from here around 17 years back. Lots of articles, documentaries, and even films come out publicly depicting the biography of Veerappan. There also comes a book written by the Chief of Special Task Force, K Vijayakumar who was the mastermind behind the killing of Veerappan named Veerappan: Chasing the Brigand. Here we are talking about a film, which is also about the last moments of Veerappan, that directed by the veteran Ram Gopal Varma. Like Veerappan, the name Ram Gopal Varma is so famous not in the way how Veerappan was known and he was a genius in Film Industry. He made wonderful movies and created a space in the mind of film lovers. Veerappan is his 2016 product and this film is not at all flavored with the actual Ram Gopal Varma essence. This is an 'okay' film that has ups and downs. The movie is about the movement of the police to capture Veerappan. Poor Script is the main thing I want to point here because there is a rush in the making while the incidents are going on. The director has that kind of a mind to restrict the film within 2 hours, and I feel so. The misplaced use of background scores feels inappropriate and the performance from some of the actors feels awkward. Especially the character of Shreya which was done by Lisa Ray is not fit in that role. The director or even the writers can't add anything freshness to the story because we all know the story very well. The task for them is to engage us the but unfortunately, they are failed to do so. There is also a docu-fiction named Killing Veerappan and that was also directed by Ram Gopal Varma which is not at all like Veerappan, the film. Anyway, the film is so short and only focused on the ending of Veerappan's killing.

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.

Even though some changes were made from Original Kannada version, the movie is very engaging. If you did not watch the Original Kannada version, you will enjoy a lot. Lot of Voilence in the movie