An extended version of Killing Veerappan – One-time watch though!

Plot:

Depicting the rise of popular Indian smuggler and bandit Veerappan (Sandeep Bharadwaj) and the failure track record of the police in capturing him, Special Team head (based on SP NK Senthamarai Kannan role) (Sachiin Joshi) makes repeated attempts to capture Veerappan with the help of informer Shreya (Lisa Ray) who rents her house to Veerappan’s wife Muttu Lakshmi (Usha Jadhav) and eventually befriends her. Unexpectedly, in spite of his daredevil and astute planning, SP Kannan fails in capturing Veerappan and loses few of his key team members. Agonized SP Kannan now hatches a bigger and lethal plan to kill Veerappan and that is Operation Cocoon. So, how did he execute and succeed in his mission forms the rest of the story.

Performances:

Sandeep Bharadwaj: Nonetheless to say, he is the find of the year. Its RGV’s sheer brilliance to be able to see Veerappan in him and this talented actor didn’t disappoint his director. It was indeed like seeing Veerappan come alive.

Sachiin Joshi: Finally he gets to prove his acting prowess with a meaty role. Couldn’t outshine Shiv Rajkumar but delivered a decent performance.

Lisa Ray: Remember this Takkari Donga girl? Well she pleasantly surprises us with her able performance.

Usha Jadhav: This National award winning actress was convincing as Veerappan’s wife and does a decent job too.

The rest of the cast has been so ideal and contributed their best to this engaging docudrama.

Analysis:

Disclaimer: If you haven’t watched Killing Veerappan, you might enjoy Veerappan.

If you are reading this even now, then let us once again acknowledge the brainy RGV for taking the meat out of Veerappan’s life and making two films in three languages. 

Keeping the first timers aside, all those who have watched the film wondering what surprise this biopic offers, will get nothing but an extended remake version of Killing Veerappan. RGV conveniently chose a similar narrative as of KV for Veerappan as well (except for a voice-over narration giving away the info of Veerappan’s childhood).

The first half that largely briefs about the rise of Veerappan and the failure of the system in curbing or capturing him isn’t so engaging. However, the film keeps getting better in the second half and the last 20mins will leave you engrossed.

On a frank note, Killing Veerappan was a better offering in terms of the lead cast performance, narrative or technical brilliance. But RGV manages to keep this docudrama (Veerappan) also watchable which is purely his brilliance!

Merits:
- Story & screenplay
- Casting and Performances of the lead cast.
- Cinematography
- Production Design

De-merits:
- Pace and run-time of the film.
- Lack of wow-factors.

Music:

More than the music of Jeet Ganguly & others, background score and re-recording by John Stewart was brilliant.

Others:

Departments like Casting, Art Direction & Cinematography deserve a special mention.

Verdict:

Veerappan is an extended version of RGV’s Killing Veerappan that released earlier in the South. Certainly not better than Killing Veerappan but was engaging enough towards the end. All hardcore RGV fans can try this if you haven’t watched KV.

Avg User Rating: 3/5