Veerappan Thrills sans good acting

The infamous activities of a terrorising figure, Koose Muniswamy Veerappan, in the states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, had received extensive media coverage, for spreading horror for years until the glorious news of his assassination came out in 2004. Ram Gopal Verma’s latest directorial venture on Veerappan’s killing starts off with a quote, “A society gets a criminal it deserves” from Voltaire, followed by a brutal scene and proceeds at a convincing pace explaining the scenario with voice-overs complementing perfect visuals. It is not a biographical film since the story is focused on the capture and execution of the notorious smuggler.

 Hence, the film deals with the failed missions and the final operation that successfully kills Veerappan. Comprising of sadism, numerous failed missions, subtle comedy and the raging anger within a vengeful police officer and a widow, this docudrama is quite a success. ‘Veerappan’ has it all, facts, drama, thrill, action and music, but hits the rock with a not-so-convincing acting. Sachiin’s role as an efficient and shrewd police officer and Lisa Ray’s role as the mourning widow of a victim of Veerappan’s crime, could have been portrayed better with some more expressions and voice modulation. Bharadwaj’s appearance with the fat moustache is pretty convincing to suit the character of Veerappan. Usha Jadhav’s performance as the sandalwood and ivory smuggler’s wife is appreciable. With the shaky personality and immense trust in her husband she might make one sympathise with her character. Jeet Ganguly’s background score fits the mood quite well. But in some cases the background music seems to be unnecessarily loud. 

‘Veerappan’ is definitely a good watch as one can witness the excruciating violence people had been exposed to for two decades and how the lost souls finally got avenged. Aniket Khandagale’s cinematography is breathtaking with the top angle shots and pan shots of the forest during the chase scenes. Overall, ‘Veerappan’ is a good film, majorly for the camera work, since collectively, the actors are a let down.