‘Veerappan’ Movie Review: An experience close to death caused by bad acting

Directed by: Ram Gopal Verma
Produced by: Raina Sachin Joshi
Cast: Sandeep Bharadwaj, Sachiin J Joshi, Usha Jadhav, Lisa Ray
Duration: 2 hours 06 minute
Bollywood Bubble Rating: 1/5

Perhaps the only thing laudable about Ram Gopal Varma’s comeback Hindi film is, how he managed to find Sandeep Bharadwaj, the man who plays the title role, Veerappan. Technically, that should have been the beginning and end of the review, but the urge to share the trauma is just unstoppable. RGV had one of the most explosive and iconic characters to make a film about, he even found the perfect guy to play the part, but looks like he decided to blow everything up, almost literally. One worst part of this horrible film was the jarring, headache-inducing background score credited to John Stewart Eduri.

In a recent interview RGV said, “If I had ever met the real Veerappan, he would have killed me.” It will not be a surprise if the dead Veerappan comes back to life and kills RGV for making a film so bad, that he’d want to erase his existence from public memory. In ‘Veerappan’, Ramu has desperately tried to recreate what he did in his own film, ‘Jungle’, he then threw in a bit of his gangster film, ‘Company’, and also planted a pointless ‘Sholay’ reference – or was it from his own, ‘RGV Ki Aag’? Just like how the recently-released ‘Azhar’ not-a-biopic began, ‘Veerappan’ also begins with the lame disclaimer about how it was not actually a biopic, and that cinematic liberties were taken. Once bitten, twice shy.

Employing a narrator to take the story forward or backward, RGV had shown us how to do it perfectly in ‘Satya’. In ‘Veerappan’ he used the same tactic, but chose the most non-enigmatic, non-energetic, dispassionate, and an almost lazy and smug person to do so – a business tycoon, who just refuses to accept that he can’t act – the one and only Sachiin J Joshi. No matter how hard you try, you just can’t take that guy seriously – especially his rotund hairy and expressionless face. Talking about rotund hairy and expressionless faces, ‘Veerappan’ (the film) has a lot of them, so much that it is hard to recognise one from the other. Eventually you just give up, and see the unnecessary bloodbath and bullet showers – and you don’t even know who is killing whom.

As if things were not bad enough already in between bad guy Sandeep and good cop Sachiin (Not kidding, in the end credits, he is credited as a ‘COP,’ he doesn’t even have a name in the film) – there are the leading ladies Lisa Ray and Usha Jadhav. While Lisa looks like a way older version of Nargis Fakhri (acts even worse than her), Usha’s character is one of the most poorly written characters in recent history. Lisa and Usha provide the laughs (unintentional) when you are almost about to walk out, thanks to the violence and overall stupidity. The last fifteen-odd minutes of ‘Veerappan’ are so hilarious, it’ll put the ‘Housefull’ franchise even the third one (yet to release) all put together, to crying shame. Well done, RGV!

There is so much to complain about in ‘Veerappan’, but any more effort will be giving it more than it is worth. If you are not one of those brats who run around shooting imaginary bullets at random people during Diwali, then this one is just a strict NO. Stay as far away from Ram Gopal Varma’s reel-life Veerappan, as the real life Veerappan used to stay away from civilisation while he was still alive. This film is an assault on your senses so bad, that you might need therapy to recover from it. It just feels bad that the same RGV who made ‘Jungle’ with the highly underrated Sushant Singh, who played the North-Indian version of Veerappan to perfection, has made this excuse of a film.

Watch Trailer: