What Is the Story About?
Netflix’s true crime series ‘The Hunt For Veerappan’ is a detailed look at the rise, rule and eventual fall of ‘Forest King’ Veerappan, the most dreaded and elusive gangster of India. The docuseries delves deep into the mind and making of the dreaded gangster, through archival footage and numerous one-on-one chats with prominent people associated with Veerappan’s life and times, spread across four expansive episodes.
The Hunt For Veerappan is written by Forrest Borie, Apoorva Bakshi, Kimberley Hassett and Selvamani Selvaraj, and directed by Selvamani Selvaraj.
Performances?
The series features detailed and eye-opening chats with numerous real-life people prominently associated with Veerappan, including his widow Muthulakshmi, Special Task Force officers Tiger Ashok Kumar and Senthamangai Kannan, Forest Officer BK Singh, investigative journalist Sunaad, former members of Veerappan’s gang, a former LTTE operative, among others.
Analysis
Netflix’s The Hunt For Veerappan is by far the most detailed and most well-made true crime docuseries to come out of India. Netflix’s previous Indian original true-crime series, the Indian Predator series and House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths simply pale in comparison to The Hunt For Veerappan, with respect to the amount of research and detailed information the series offers. The narrative style is also much more taut, compelling and realistic, keeping one hooked to the series for its entire four hours runtime.
The meticulously-researched series delves deep into the mind of the dreaded criminal Veerappan, who shot dead at least a 1000 tuskers for ivory, butchered 184 people, including 45 policemen, smuggled millions of dollars’ worth of sandalwood, and kept special task forces of three Indian states constantly on their toes for more than two decades.
The series is a goldmine of information on how a poor, lowly youngster from the tiny village of Gopinatham became the Veerappan we know today. The Hunt For Veerappan also showcases stunning factual material of the dreaded smuggler – intriguing audio clips, revelatory video footage and vivid archival pictures of Veerappan’s life as the king of South Indian jungles.
The series also makes one ponder over the fact that no one is born a criminal. It is the prevailing socio-economic-political milieu and discriminatory systems in the country that compel the poor though spirited few to take to a life of crime – and flourish and thrive in it.
The most compelling character in the series ‘The Hunt For Veerappan’ — apart from Veerappan himself, obviously — is his widow, Muthulakshmi. She gives a seemingly honest, no-holds-barred account of her late husband’s crimes, his skirmishes with lawmen and life in the jungles with him. She paints him as the quintessential familyman, with a tenderness and child-like quality to him. Veerappan’s child-like quality is harped upon by several other people in the series, almost as if the makers want us to sympathise and empathise with the notorious bandit.
Realising this, and wanting to present a balanced take on the criminal, the writers take great pains to depict the animal-like brutality that Veerappan came to be known for. The episode showing Veerappan’s barbaric murder of forest officer P Srinivas is especially affecting, complete with authentic pictures of his beheaded and mutilated body.
Along with showcasing the gut-wrenching brutality that characterised Veerappan’s mythical rise, The Hunt For Veerappan doesn’t shy away from casting a harsh spotlight on the equally barbaric tactics and abuse of power by Indian police forces. An entire episode recounts, in great detail, how the Karnataka police operated a torture chamber, nicknamed the “workshop”, where they routinely herded innocent villagers and tortured them to glean information on Veerappan’s whereabouts.
Controversial Special Task Force Officer Shankar Bidari comes in for special criticism in the series, for his acts of torturing villagers, setting fire to hundreds of villagers’ homes, and beating innocent men to death. Not just that, he slammed the notorious TADA act on upwards of 1000 villagers, none of which is officially documented. Curiously, The Hunt For Veerappan doesn’t feature an interview with Bidari, a missed opportunity by any standard.
An entire episode is also devoted to Veerappan’s misguided plunge into social activism, his connivance with LTTE agents, and his relatively well-documented kidnap of venerated Kannada superstar, Dr Rajkumar. Towards the final two episodes of the series, the makers again tilt the balance in Veerappan’s favour, giving a sympathetic flavour to the entire narrative. This is a problem specific to true-crime documentary series. In recounting the life of a superhero-ish criminal, and trying to understand why he is the way he is, the creators end up glorifying him and his deeds on screen, painting him in strokes of larger-than-life invincibility, that can only be subdued by deceitful means – just like it took deceit to draw Veerappan out of his forested fiefdom and execute him at close range.
To sum it up, The Hunt For Veerappan is gritty, compelling, and definitely a must-watch.
Music and Other Departments?
Jhanu Chanthar’s background music is ominous and foreboding. The baleful music perfectly complements the intriguing story that unfolds on screen. Udit Khurana’s camerawork is the star of the show. The terrific aerial scenes, coupled with sweeping, wide-angle shots of the dark, impregnable forests, often shrouded by a dense forbidding haze, give the best clue as to how his impermeable fiefdom helped Veerappan elude highly skilled STF and BSF officers for more than twenty years. Ajit K Nair, Jack Price and Weston Currie’s editing is excellent, and lends crispness to the narrative.
Highlights?
Well made, well written and meticulously researched series
Top notch technical aspects
Drawbacks?
Tends to glorify and lionise its subject
Did I Enjoy It?
Yes
Will You Recommend It?
Yes
The Hunt for Veerappan Series Review by Binged Bureau
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