Veerappan movie review: Ram Gopal Varma shouldn't have named his film Veerappan

Ram Gopal Varma's documentation of Veerappan's life, Veerappan, hit the screens today. Will this film be reminiscent of Varma's Satya days? Here's the review of Veerappan.

Cast: Sandeep Bhardwaj, Sachiin Joshi, Lisa Ray, Usha Jadhav
Direction: Ram Gopal Varma
Ratings:

A society gets the criminal it deserves. Ram Gopal Varma bases his Veerappan on this Voltaire quote. Varma chronicles the life and times of India's most notorious criminal Veerappan in this film. Except, Varma does not. Veerappan has been touted as a biopic, but it is hardly the poacher's life Varma is talking about.

ALSO READ: Making Veerappan is not about glorifying the criminal, says Ram Gopal Varma

The Sathyamangalam forest. Veerappan lords over this kingdom of his. He kills elephants for their tusks, and men just so he is feared. No one can meet this dreaded bandit if he doesn't want one to. He trusts only a handful of people, but doesn't bat an eyelid when he has to kill a rat from among his group.

That's just about the man who has given his name to this Ram Gopal Varma film. Veerappan the film, however, is about someone else altogether. Sachiin Joshi plays this elusive officer (called just 'Cop' in the film's end credits) who heads the Special Task Force operation to kill Veerappan.

Veerappan is a family man too. Wife Muthulakshmi cooks for him, and doesn't fail to remind her husband that they have never held hands and roamed around in the jungle after marriage.

The story of Veerappan is narrated by Sachiin Joshi to his STF mates. When Veerappan chops off an officer's limbs and bashes his head, the latter's widow Priya (Lisa Ray) is roped in to help with the investigation. Her work is to keep an eye on Muthulakshmi (Usha Jadhav), captured from the forest and made to live as a paying guest in Priya's house.

Varma's story is a retelling of the last few months before Veerappan's death on October 18, 2004. The director attempts to bring on screen the run-up to the bandit's killing, but fails miserably. The narrative is hardly gripping or taut, thanks largely to Sachiin Joshi's sleep-inducing dialogue delivery. The guy is omnipresent in Veerappan. So much so, that an hour into the film you begin wondering why the film was even named Veerappan. But that is not the only problem with the movie.

Veerappan feels like a 2-hour-30-minute long, badly-rehearsed children's play. Sachiin Joshi sings a lullaby even while outlining an operation; his way of talking can put even the most active of people to sleep. Lisa Ray lip-stracts you badly. Her acting seems strangely forced. Her camaraderie with Usha Jadhav's Muthulakshmi sticks out like a sore finger. Ram Gopal Varma feels the need to hold the viewer by the neck and make him/her realise that Priya and Muthulakshmi's friendship is all pretence.

Only Sandeep Bhardwaj seems genuinely invested in the film. But sadly, he is allowed neither the space nor the scope to go beyond the ordinary.

Varma's Veerappan is a hotchpotch of important incidents at best. At worst... let's not even go there. The director, who had gifted us the brilliant camerawork in Sarkar - the close shots, especially - floods every single frame with the same in Veerappan. During the film, there are several moments when you wish Veerappan would turn his 303 on you and help you escape this torture.

There are dialogues like "Bewakoofon aur khooniyo ko jeena ka koi adhikar nahi hai", "Raakshas ko marne ke liye usse bada raakshas banna padta hai" and what not. Scenes which are supposed to evoke empathy, are horribly farcical. There is not a moment you feel for any of the many people on screen.

John Stewart Eduri's background score works on your eardrums like a pair of hammers. It is only in Aniket Khandagale's cinematography that Veerappan scores a few brownie points.

At the end of the day, Veerappan is hardly the redemption Ram Gopal Varma could have hoped for. It is 2.5 hours of unbearable torture.