MELBOURNE, 5 January 2023: Veerapan, is on ZEE5 Global. His legacy is alive and ‘Koose Munisamy Veerapan’, the six episodes series now streaming on ZEE5 Global, explores the fugitives life and times in Tamil, Kannada, Hindi and Telugu.
Through an interesting blend of real-life footage and firsthand accounts from individuals who were close to him, the series portrays Veerappan‘s persona and his legacy of crime. What sets this series apart is the fact that he primarily narrates his story.
The six episodes trace events and the much of his Robinhood type activities spread in the jungles of Karnataka, Tamilnadu and Kerala, using footage shot and archived by journalist Nakkeeran Gopal.
Real footage use of Veerapan’s video interviews to Nakkeeran Gopal give an authentic touch to the docu-series. In his times Veerapan was perceived a violent killer, sandalwood smuggler, poacher moving around in lush green forests.
The series tries to show things as they were and does not make a hero or villian out of Veerapan. This is a much better presentation than the recent extremely violent stuff on Indian screens. The viewers have been given the option to make their own judgements.
All the episodes are watchable and keep you glued to the screen. The intriguing world of Veerapan and the state’s response to it was not unexpected. Behind every crime, criminal, violence there is always a reason. The question is not to justify or demonise it. It needs to be seen as it happened and understood.
WRITTEN BY – Jeyachandra Hashmi, Sharath Jothi, Vasanth Balakrishnan
DIRECTED BY – Sharath Jothi
MUSIC BY – Satish Raghunathan
ORIGINAL LANGUAGE – Tamil
CINEMAGTOGRAPHY – Rajkumar PM
EDITOR – Ram Pandian
EPISODES – Six
I give it 3 stars out of five.
