CHENNAI: A Tamil blockbuster that released only a year before Veerappan was shot dead, the slick city cop story Kaakha Kaakha, had an insinuating dialogue about the state’s failure to nab its top criminal for more than a decade: Veerappan.
The film featured a scene with the public telling cops they did not have the talent to nab Veerappan. Suriya, who played a cop in the film, would then agree that they still did not nab Veerappan, but lack of talent was not the actual reason for that, hinting at a bigger reason for the brigand’s escapades. Again, in 2003, another film, Saamy, featured a dialogue by a comedian asking cops when they will nab the elusive forest brigand.
This celluloid romance with the forest anti-hero is nearly two decades old now, with several filmmakers inspired by the Robin Hood-themed life of Veerappan. Tamil cinema’s biggest and boldest depiction of the sandalwood smuggler came through Captain Prabhakaran, the 1991 movie by RK Selvamani, which won its cop hero Vijayakanth, his famed Captain surname, apart from leading a legion of films based or influenced by the forest brigand. Veerappan’s role was reprised by Mansoor Ali Khan, who played the role of forest smuggler Veerabhadran.
In Hindi, Govind Namdeo in Sarfarosh reprised the role of Veeran, a forest leader whose name and role was akin to Veerappan. Several other movies, like Ram Gopal Varma’s Jungle in 2000, and Malayalam film, Korappan, were also loosely based on the enigmatic life of the bandit. Six years after his death, in 2010, when the bilingual Raavan was released, the lead tribal leader’s character name of Veeriah and his modus operandi in kidnap brought back the memories of the sandalwood smuggler, though the film was based on the mythological hero Raavan. Later, on the silver screen, Makkal TV presented a serial, Santhanakkadu, exploring the life and times of the brigand.
While most of these films were adaptations or loosely based on the notorious criminal, with Vana Yudhdham, Veerappan will, for the first time, be directly portrayed on screen. “By being a controversial smuggler, his life is in public domain. It is with that liberty that I am attempting a film on him directly. I have met more than 200 persons involved with Veerappan, including his wife, STF head Vijaykumar and Veerappan’s associate for four years, Mugilan Sivakumar, and have based my script on their narrations,” Ramesh says, adding that the film will focus largely on the Rajkumar kidnap episode and Veerappan’s gruesome end.
Having interacted with several of Veerappan’s men and the cops who tried nabbing them, how does Ramesh now see the forest leader — a Robin Hood-like do-gooder or a criminal? “All said and done, Veerappan is only a brigand and my film will depict him as one. His do-gooder part will also be shown,” Ramesh says.
