Movie: Killing Veerappan
Rating: 2.75/5
Banner: Zed 3 Pictures
Cast: Shiva Rajkumar, Sandeep Bharadwaj, Yagna Shetty, Sanchari Vijay, Parul Yadav and others
Dialogues: Shashank Vennelakanti
Music by: Ravi Shankar
Cinematography: Rammy
Producers: B. V. Manjunath, B. S. Sudhindra, E. Shivaprakash
Story, screenplay, direction: Ram Gopal Varma
Release date: Jan 7, 2016
Ever since the trailer was out, Killing Veerappan had created huge buzz as the trailer promised that Ram Gopal Varma is back in form with this film.
A week ago, the movie opened to rave reviews in Kannada too. Is all the hype worth it? Let’s find out.
Story:
Several special officers and police officers get killed in their pursuit of nabbing smuggler Veerappan (Sandeep Bharadwaj). One Special task force officer (Shiva Rajkumar) believes that he has some methods that can work in catching Veerappan. His initial methods only result in failures. Learning from failures, he starts playing mind games with Veerappan that lead to killing him as the title suggests.
Artistes’ Performances:
The greatest strength of the movie is the right casting. Sandeep Bharadwaj is almost like real Veerappan. He has lived in the skin of the character. Such a fine performance by Sandeep! Kannada star Shiva Rajkumar is perfect in the role of a police officer devoted to his job of nabbing Veerappan. Parul Yadav is good too. Yagna Shetty as Muthulakshmi, Veerappan’s wife is okay.
Technical Excellence:
Camera work stands out in the movie. Apart from trademark Ram Gopal Varma’s shaky shots, the movie has better camera work than his recent movies.
Art work is also good but songs are too bad. Even background score is loud and irritating. The movie has couple of thrilling action episodes thanks to action choreography.
Highlights:
- Climax sequence
- Sandeep Bharadwaj as Veerappan
- Shiva Rajkumar’s performance
Drawbacks:
- Loud background score
- Lack of good songs
- Some scenes after the interval
- Tamil terrorist chase scene
Analysis:
When was the last time Ram Gopal Varma won great praise? Probably it was with ‘The Attacks Of 26/11’. Then he went on to deliver one bad movie after another. So many started wondering if he would ever bounce back.
Well, Killing Veerappan proves that the maverick director is still capable of narrating decent engaging stories and he still has not lost it totally.
Like the trailer promised, the movie also is told in feverish way. Though it is not on par with his best movies, still Killing Veerappan is better one from him in the recent times. From start to finish, he has told it in engrossing manner.
As the title say the movie is all about killing of Veerappan. Hence we know the climax beforehand, despite this Ram Gopal Varma has succeeded in keeping the tempo. This is indeed an achievement. The interval shoot out in the forest is OK. The climax build-up scenes are also good.
Although post interval the movie’s pace goes dull and some unnecessary scenes come. There are some very dull scenes come and go like it comes back to the track and ends in thrilling way.
All in all, Ram Gopal Varma has come up with a decent movie after so many bad movies.
Bottomline: Veerapan Rise Hopes On Vangaveeti
(Venkat can be reached [email protected] or Twitter)
