An archive of Hindi movie reviews and ratings from 2010 to 2020.
  • Veerappan

    43

    Mixed or average reviews (?)
    Based on 20 critics

    Cast & Crew

    Summary

    Koose Muniswamy Veerappan during his teenage starts working as an assistant to his relative Sevi Gounder, a notorious poacher and sandalwood smuggler. His father and relatives, whose village lay in the forest area, were also known to be poachers and smugglers. Veerappan (Sandeep Bharadwaj), dominant in Sathyamangalam Forest in the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala, defies the governments, and Indian Border security paramilitary forces, and maintain a small army. He is wanted for killing approximately 184 people, about half of whom were police officers, including senior police and forest officials. He was also wanted for poaching about 200 elephants and smuggling ivory worth US$2,600,000 and about 10,000 tonnes of sandalwood worth approximately US$22,000,000.

    In 1991, Veerappan and his chief Intel Gandhi, behead IFS Officer P. Srinivas. Years later, Veerappan avenges the death of his close associate Gandhi by misleading Special Task Force (STF) personnel in their covert operation, through Gandhi's unnamed notorious informer. The covet mission led by T. Harikrishna S.P., and his informer S.I. Shakeel Ahmed to kill Veerappan fails miserably. Veerappan, and his army brutally assassinate all the STF officers in the operation, and snatch their arms.

    The Tamil Nadu STF chief K. Vijay Kumar I.P.S. appoints his associate, an undercover I.P.S. spy in the Karnataka region, a master-strategist (Sachiin J Joshi), who puts in place the Operation Cocoon through a network of tribals, and informers, such as Deputy spy, a woman STF spy and land lord (Lisa Ray), who befriends and rents out house to Muthulakshmi-the wife of Veerappan (Usha Jadhav). On the other hand, a team of loyal undercover cops led by Rambo Krishna, leave Palar base of STF, near M. M. Hills, 100 kilometres (62 mi) from Kollegal of Karnataka along with a team of 41 members which includes police from two states, forest officials, forest watchers and informers. The team travels in two vehicles, of which one is a bus carrying most of the team members, and a jeep carrying K.Goplakrishnan, the IPS officer. Veerappan gang plants landmines on the road in more than 14 places to halt their approach, and during the Palar blast, K.Gopalakrishnan, standing on the foot board of the jeep is thrown out, and suffer severe injuries, leaving the police to retaliate and ultimately prevent the snatching of arms.

    After few failed attempts, including the one led by another undercover cop, disguised as a subordinate to Islamic underworld Don-Kadaani, to negotiate arms deal with veerappan's gang, the STF team led by master-strategist, and an ex-spy turned timberyard owner-Kumar, finally succeed on 18 October 2004. On that day, Veerappan is escorted out of the forest by Kumar who earlier infiltrates Veerappan's gang in disguise to negotiate another arms deal with Velupillai Prabhakaran. Subsequently, veerappan and his men board an ambulance stationed at Papparapatti village in Dharmapuri district, Veerappan and his men are first warned and then asked to surrender, which was denied, and the men start firing at the STF personnel. The STF retaliate by firing grenades and gun fire, subsequently Veerappan and his men are killed on the spot.

    Trailer

Critic reviews and ratings

  • Wish the director, who gave us unforgettable mafia material like Satya, Company and Sarkar, had packed in some extra punches.

    59

    Critic rating (?)

  • Looks like Ramu has found his long-lost mojo with this one.

    59

    Critic rating (?)

  • Ram Gopal Varma should also be applauded for convincingly extracting human emotions from his characters, without going over the top.

    59

    Critic rating (?)

  • Even then this could have been an engaging watch, if not spoiled by that constant assault on one's eardrums.

    59

    Critic rating (?)

  • ...mostly gripping, sensational and involving.

    59

    Critic rating (?)

  • So has RGV got his mojo back? The jury is still out on that.

    49

    Critic rating (?)

  • In certain aspects of storytelling then, this is a film that cannot be ignored. It is however hard to get past the poor acting by Joshi and Ray and that overly loud background score.

    44

    Critic rating (?)

  • ...the once-brilliant Varma finally seems to be paying attention again.

    39

    Critic rating (?)

  • ... 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.

    39

    Critic rating (?)

  • ...we see flashes of the Varma of old, and he gets solid support from Bharadwaj and Jadhav’s performances. If only the screenplay had been tighter and the mood more suspenseful.

    39

    Critic rating (?)

  • What really gets to you is the background score that goes boom, boom, boom, every time there is an action scene in the jungle, some jungle scenes, or scenes where not much is happening. RGV tries to hit out at you, any which way.

    39

    Critic rating (?)

  • It may well be a misfire, but Veerappan shows that at least RGV has his eyes open while squeezing the trigger. The dacoit is still at large.

    39

    Critic rating (?)

  • It's not the worst film Ram Gopal Varma has made. Nor is it any close to his best. It's just a middle-of-the-road offering where seeing an actor look like the mirror image of Veerappan catches your fancy for a few fleeting moments.

    39

    Critic rating (?)

  • ...what you leave the cinema with at the end are shattered eardrums from the incessant background music.

    39

    Critic rating (?)

  • It's upsetting that Ram Gopal Varma fans have to put up with this. Even the very few and far between visual flourishes are merely reminders of an auteur that was.

    39

    Critic rating (?)

  • Better than some RGV products. Yes, that isn't saying much in favor of the film.

    39

    Critic rating (?)

  • ...does not shy away from making a great deal of noise, but the film is more akin to soggy gelatin sticks delivering a damp squib than a big explosive device triggering an earth-shattering bang.

    29

    Critic rating (?)

  • ...a hotchpotch of important incidents at best. At worst... let's not even go there.

    29

    Critic rating (?)

  • To find an actor who resembles the real-life character he has to play is a stroke of pure luck. But to fritter that away by making that reel-life character so uni-dimensional, so uninteresting is pure misfortune, both for the once terrific director, as well as for us viewers who live in hope for his return.

    29

    Critic rating (?)

  • The return of RGV to Bollywood's consciousness. He's not completely in his usual element here, but there are flashes of his brilliance here, and these, sadly, are few and far between.

    29

    Critic rating (?)

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