Cast: Sandeep Bharadwaj, Sachiin Joshi, Usha Jadhav, Lisa Ray

Rating: 1.5/5

There was a time, when our police force planned several operations to kill the ‘most-wanted’ dacoit, Veerappan.

Ram Gopal Varma (RGV)’s recent release is based on this particular episode of his life.

The film starts with Voltaire’s popular quote ‘A society gets the criminal it deserves’, followed by Veerappan (Sandeep Bharadwaj) and his gang attacking a chief officer at the police guard post. This upsets the police task force, who strike back by attacking his ‘den’ and taking his wife, Muthulaksmi (Usha Jadhav) into custody.

To lure Veerappan out of the jungle, the force plots a mission, by releasing Muthulakshmi. They approach Shriya (Lisa Ray), wife of the slain police offer, and seek her help to succeed in the mission.

As planned, she lets Muthulakshmi stay in her house, wins her trust and gets important info. Soon, this mission too falls flat and from this moment on, the vengeance drama picks pace… Right from the beginning of the second half, the plot gets messy and overdramatic.

The operation continues and dominates the rest of the film. The brain behind the plot, Sachiin Joshi and task force try hard to get hold of the dacoit, and one fine day… their plan works out, leading to Veerappan’s demise. What happened on and before October 18, 2004 is well known, but RGV fails to add flair and magic in this drama, which doesn’t make the movie gripping enough to watch. Instead of throwing light on Veerappan’s past, RGV’s story safely shows only the final encounter.

There is just one instance in the movie where the makers talk about the ransom and Veerappan’s monetary loss involved in Kannada superstar, Dr Rajkumar’s kidnapping.

Furthermore, we fail to understand why RGV has not added any South Indian element to the drama, which predominantly revolves around Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Nevertheless, the script is poor and rambling and the dialogues fail to make an impression.

Talking about the cast, the onscreen couple, Veerappan and Muthulakshmi (Sandeep Bharadwaj and Usha Jadhav) are the only characters who constantly try to hold our attention.

Lisa Ray thoroughly fails as the spy. Her expressions are not in place and the poor lip sync and dubbing make it difficult to watch her. Sachiin Joshi, despite his efforts through smoke rings, camera glances and many other tactics, doesn’t do justice to the role either.

The movie is full of loud and unbearable music by John Stewart Eduri. Some scenes in the movie, thankfully, have interesting visuals, but the makers ensure that the attention is interrupted by the only song in the film.

Overall, this 126-minute film is full of flaws, which makes it a boring affair. This movie was expected to give a glimpse of RGV’s old charm, but unfortunately fails to do so.

In short, we would suggest you all to save money. Give this movie a pass and spend the weekend doing other things.