30.6.10

Mani's Calssic of all; Vilan movie review



Villain








The Mani Ratnam’s film Ravan in Hindi, has evoked lots of hype right from the day he announced the film. The film was simultaneously made in three languages. The Bollywood version had Abhishek Bachchan as Villain and Vikram as hero, while the other versions i.e., the Tamil and Telugu films had Vikram in the villain’s role and Prithviraj was opted for the hero’s role. However, Aishwarya Bachchan is the female lead in all the versions.

Suhasini has penned the dialogues for Tamil version and Sri ramakrishna for the Telugu version. It is a socialised version of the epic ‘Ramayan’. Mani Ratnam has made an attempt to show villain in a heroic role and the hero with a cruel tendency.


Dev (Prithviraj) is a tough police officer who is appointed to catch Veeraiah (Vikram). During the marriage of Veeraiah’s sister (Priyamani), Dev attacks him and injures him. Meanwhile, Veeraiah’s sister gets detained by the police for interrogation, but gets gang raped by the police men. This irks Veeraiah who wreaks a vengeance against the police.

As Dev was responsible for everything, Veeraiah kidnaps Ragini (Aishwarya), wife of Dev, to teach him a lesson. Dev sets off to the forest in search of Ragini and Veeraiah. A forest guard (Karthik) comes forward to assist Dev to capture Veeraiah. With the help of the forest guard, Dev was able to trace Ragini. Ragini, who makes several vain attempts to escape from the clutches of Veeraiah. The latter don't harm to Ragini. She realises that Veeraiah’s act is justified. What happens next should be seen on screen.

Plus:The performance of the lead artistes including Vikram and Aishwarya are the major plus points of the film. National-award winning artiste Vikram has given an ultimate performance in this film Aishwarya Rai, who is very popular across the world, played in a little de glamorous role in the film. She has given excellent performance in the film. Prithviraj is okay as a police officer. Priyamani, though flashed on the screen for a few minutes, has given a graceful performance and won the hearts of audiences. Prabhu, Karthik did justice to their respective roles. Cinematography by Santosh Sivan is another major plus point for the movie. He was able to picturize the forest beauties with his camera perfectly. AR Rahman’s music is yet another plus point for the movie. The re-recording is ultimate and many scenes in the film were elevated because of the music. Action choreography is another department which has given an excellent support for the success of the film.

Minus:The only draw back of the film is the unimpressive dialogues and songs. Though versatile writer, the late Veturi penned the songs, none of them are impressive. Likewise, dialogues by Sriramakrishna were also pale and lacked any punch. The dialogues appeared artificial and gives you the feeling of watching a dubbing film.

Analysis:The first half is a little boring as the story runs with forest in its backdrop and the heroine trying to escape and the villain recapturing her. However, the second half run with nail-biting suspense and action and made the audiences sit tight to their seats. It is absurd to review a film by a great director like Mani Ratnam, as he had high directorial capabilities and the style he shows in picturizing the film is impeccable.


Cast: Vikram, Pruthviraj, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, PrithivirajKarthik, Prabhu, Kishore, Priyamani and others.
Credits: Dialogues – Sriramakrishna, Lyrics – Veturi Sundararama Murthy, Music – AR Rahman, Cinematography – Santosh Sivan and Manikanthan, Editing – Srikar Prasad, Art – Sameer Chanda, Action – Shyam Kaushal and Peter Heynes, Producers – Mani Ratnam and Sarada Trilok, Screenplay and direction – Mani Ratnam.
Banner: Madras Talkies
Released on: June 18, 2010

Death of Robin hood: a photgraphers eye



It was my birthday and I drank royal challenge whiskey and chatted with T at the Cosmo village. The music was loungy and she smelt nice, of soap and lavender. I leant forward about to say something witty when Aashi called and told me that Veerapan, the poacher bandit cop killing LTTE sympathizer who had eluded arrest for more than 20 years, who had killed over a hundred people and many more elephants, had been " shot dead " near Dharmapuri, a few hours away from Bangalore and close to the dense forests of the western ghats, the ether from where Veerapan he had handled his operations.
A few years previously I had been driving through Bandipur National Park and we had passed by another jeep driven by Krupakar and Senani, two wildlife photographers, who I was to meet in later years. The next morning, they were kidnapped by Veerapan and endured some weeks with him in the forest. Later another photographer friend told me about Veerapan and how he met him by accident, how he had taken his picture in the forest and I found myself wanting to meet him. I imagined him a romantic figure in wild settings, the smells of the forest in his nostrils, crouched in the bushes animal like, towering trees dripping foliage, dew everywhere, mist, elephants, just their wet black backs and heads visible through the leaves.
I decided that I would shoot the aftermath of his death. I asked T if she would like to come. It was 1 in the morning so she conferred with her parents on the phone. I took her home, she dressed suitably conservative and we headed out with some reporter acquaintances down deserted highways lined by dried up trees, towards the town. She was young, upper middle class and was leaving to New York to do a course in filmmaking, an unusual girl, who said wise things sometimes, I felt.
What memories, what quiet moments, what experiences with elephants and early misty mornings and immense beauties would have been with Koose Muniswamy Veerapan, forever lost with his death. Would he have taken them for granted? What horrors, rages and cold-blooded murders. A criminal, rebel, ruthless murderer, thief, loving husband, all of the above.
We reached Dharmapuri in the early morning. Swarms of mosquitoes gave the air texture when I ran my hand through it. I had a press ID with me and we walked past police barricades toward the morgue. Reporters were everywhere. The doors of the morgue were closed. The autopsy was being carried out.

Kannada daily photographers milled about, another day at the office and had gotten there early enough to shoot close ups of Veerapan’s head, bullet hole included. The constabulary read through the local papers, which included large pictures of his head. I went to the morgue. It was locked.



I went around the back to a window and opened it. A blood stained mortuary block. Men standing in corners with AK47 rifles. A man videotaping the autopsy. A policeman rushed forward and slammed the window shut.



We decided to go and look at the vehicle in which Veerapan had been shot. We drove to the site. The bullet-riddled van was covered with a large tarpaulin. Villagers walked by and a short distance away was parked the lorry in which the STF men had lain in wait. Bullets seemed to have riddled Veerapan’s vehicle from the quantity of glass lying about. A few bullets had hit the police lorry, from what seemed to be the wrong direction.




We returned to the mortuary. The cops had a tough time keeping cameramen at bay. Everyone wanted close up pictures of the bodies. I felt myself gagging at the odor that came from the morgue. Putrefaction, meat, blood and dettol. No one seemed to notice and jostled each other, fighting for a vantage point to take photos. The mortuary workers were excited. They posed, looking serious, clean and combed, by the bodies. Tomorrow they would be forgotten and would lapse back into the anonymity of small town India. Today they stood next to Veerapan, Bandit king, elephant killer.


I stood next to Veerapan. In a few days he would disappear from the news. In a few years his story would be lost, embellished and exaggerated about. His death would sink into local legend and eventually his bullet-riddled body would be worth just as much.The thief, murderer, poacher and brigand was being haggled over.


Veerapan didn’t look like himself. The photographs I had seen earlier showed a man, with piercing eyes and wild hair. Veerapan had been shot at close range in the head. I found myself not wanting to shoot his face stitched up, eyeball missing, hair carefully combed by the spruced up mortuary workers.
He police brass arrived in force, smiling, shaking hands and doing their hair with small pink and yellow plastic combs. They spoke to cameramen and many officers leaned in closer towards other officers so that they could be included in photographs. Constables pushed, shoved and strutted and commented on photographers “Look at that fellow, what stupid photos is he taking?” and shouted instructions. “You next, no.… YOU!”. A Karnataka STF member discussed with his friend whether, given their efforts they would also get plots of land as had been promised by the government of Tamil Nadu to the Tamil Nadu STF members who had killed Veerapan. The odour of putrefaction and dettol filled the air and I wondered if what was happening said more about our systems and our souls than just about Veerapan the dead dacoit.

I took some pictures of photographers taking pictures. I felt claustrophobic. I went to the rear or the morgue and forced opened a window. Through a doorway I could see the photographers shoot the neatly lined up corpses of Veerapan and his men. I was away, 20 feet apart from the chaos. A corpse lay on the floor, in the mortuary behind where the bodies had been lined up.


The corpse looked asleep. Who was he? He seemed to have bullet injuries from where I stood. An informer, an accident victim? A woman brought her dead baby in from the hospital. Reporters thinking she was related to Veerapan rushed at her cameras clicking and then rushed away. Another anonymous little corpse in an anonymous government morgue. The mother looked forlorn and resigned.
We left the morgue. Outside the gates hundreds of people stood on balconies and milled about waiting for a glimpse of the body. Veerapan wife was to come there soon. She had alleged that she had been tortured by the STF during their hunt for Veerapan. No one disbelieved her. It must have been hard for her to be married to Veerapan, I thought. She had joined him in the forest but for the most part they had remained separate. He had allegedly killed his own daughter, an infant, to prevent her crying and warning the STF of his presence. She spoke of her time in the forest fondly though, as I recall in a documentary, and she spoke of elephants and how she would watch them, with Koose Muniswamy Veerapan by her side.
I went to the nearby press conference under a tent. Outside the Tamil Nadu STF celebrated. They hoisted their leader on their shoulders and cheered. He fell off. I missed the photo as I was changing film. Men bonded and shouted and laughed on the TN side.The Karnataka STF made an entrance. They had been fierce competition and fights between the two state task forces when it came to apprehending Veerapan. The Karnataka STF looked forlorn and resigned. They had lost their baby too.


The press conference began. There was no room. T disappeared into the crowd. There was a lot of praise for the Tamil Nadu STF from the Tamil Nadu STF. The press guffawed a lot. No one seemed to believe that it was a genuine "encounter".
We got into the car, and slowly negotiated the packed roads. T lit up a cigarette. The crowds pressed up against the car, saw this and went crazy. They banged on the car and pressed their faces against the windows for a closer look. A woman smoking. I ran over a foot or two and drove home, back to Bangalore, past the same dried up trees, desolate fields and plastic packets blowing in the wind.
I felt removed from the masses of humanity who spoke different languages, stared at women smoking and crossed the road without looking in any direction. I was tired. I felt like I was watching myself drive from far away as we headed towards the city and its traffic jams. As with experiences that involve death and violence I wondered if one day I would be exaggerated, lied and embellished about. Or maybe like the baby in the government hospital forgotten. Would my mother be forlorn and resigned? Would morticians comb by hair with the same care? Why would they? Thus lost in thought, I nearly ran into a road divider.
We stopped at a roadside restaurant, I drank tea, lots of it and was awake again. T looked out of the window a lot and I sang songs in terrible Kannada to Bocelli playing on the car stereo and we drove past forgettable fields and similar towns under an overcast sky. She laughed and clapped her hands when I sang. I reached Bangalore and its traffic. I understood her need to leave India. She would not return I felt. Europe though, not America, I imagined. I stopped the car near her house, and wished her off. She smelt of cigarette smoke, lavender and sweat. She exited the car, walked down a lane and disappeared into the ether.

13 COMMENTS:


Dipa Kurup said...
U dont know me of course...i am just someone who came across your blog.i dont go thru blogs but i got yours from a friend of mine. i feel cheesy even mailing but sumtimes when u go thru sumthign...u knwo it wdnt matter but u still gotta tell the person that their work was absolutely brilliant. i am no judge of anything...but aesthetically ur pictures are wholesome.i had begun tot hink id forgotten that word wholesome.for someone who has almost begun to give up on stuff...u are sor tof an inspiration.well i get inspired in spurts...so buddy as of now..i stand inspired. ur work is just outstanding. thanks for your pictures.the depth comes through.
Guptavati said...
A very human collection of photographs.Even in something as ubiquitously available as the Veerappan episode,you seem to have captured what would be missed by most eyes.Particularly the galleries also focussed on communities and marginalized sections of the society.An extraordinary crosssection presented with such a human touch is rare to come by.Hope to seem more of your work
sunshinealways said...
Very interesting work. I came here after seeing your name in the comments section of Prashant Miranda's work. I've added your blog to my list of interesting blogs and will be checking back regularly.
NishaN said...
I really, really like your writing.
nandini said...
very nice man...different. random- real- felt like i was actually there.
Cletus Pinto said...
Awesome!!
Anonymous said...
Dear Ryan, Your story was wonderful to read and you see and feel things that most people miss. What at first confused me was the girl in the story. Your vist to the death of veerapan is almost like a journey into your own heart where you find the corpse of yourself, executed by someone from the ether. love, K
Anonymous said...
Morbid pschyo shit man. cool.
Anonymous said...
Hi Ryan, I came upon your blogs by chance while going through some old indian angler articles. I must congratulate you on your fantastic work.....keep it up.
Anonymous said...
you have a sensitive soul Ryan Lobo. Very beautiful.
Anonymous said...
More photos of veerappan pls. i heard he is robinhood for poor
Anonymous said...
Joshua from kollegal is an great fan of veerappan. he is an real good human being
Anonymous said...
very very disturbing.......the very fact that you found yourself in a place and a situation that could have otherwise been very sensitively handeled. It surprises me to no end to find a news-thirsty photographer trying to get 'his quota' of what ever happened amidst such sadness.......

Veerappan’s life story in a movie



Veerappan
Notorious sandalwood smuggler and dacoit Veerappan’s life history will be made into a Hindi film by Ram Gopal Varma, the director who gave hits films like Rangeela, Satya, and most recently, Sarkar Raj.
Shooting will begin in August 2008, when Ram Gopal Varma will be done with his projects Contractor and Phoonk. RGV will write the story and screenplay and will produce it as well. The onus of directing this film will be on his friend and associate in direction, Prashant Pandey. Ram Gopal Varma said that this film will be made with newcomers.
At the moment, it is said that RGV is busy collecting the subject matter for this film; the chief source of facts and unheard part of Veerappan’s life is his wife Muthulakshmi. And there are speculations that Muthulakshmi might play a role in this film as well, but it has not yet been confirmed.
The film will chronicle Veerappan’s youth, his entry into smuggling, his rise as a dacoit, his love life, and finally his death at the hands of special team of police.
Ram Gopal Varma is a notable director who has made quite a lot of films based on dons and dacoits. The director has an insatiable hunger for making films based on the people from the world of crime.

How Veerappan walked into the STF's trap


/photo.cms?msid=891424


DHARMAPURI: Veerappan, India's most wanted and most elusive brigand who murdered with impunity, was finally shot dead in his jungle hideout by elite commandos using some of the very tactics he employed for well over two decades to build a vast criminal empire.

Using deception, undercover agents and a meticulously laid out network of informants, Tamil Nadu's Special Task Force (STF) commandos - set up only to nab him - trapped the 50-something Munuswamy Veerappan Gounder, made famous by his trademark handlebar moustache, into taking a van ride in a forested region where policemen ambushed and gunned him down Monday night.

Operation Cocoon to track and eliminate the forest bandit succeeded because of extra-ordinary intelligence said K Vijaykumar, chief of the combined Special Task Force (STF) on Tuesday.

In a remarkable success story of perseverance, the STF - made up of commandos toughened by living in the inhospitable jungles of southern India straddling the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border - planted a mole in Veerappan's gang who drove the van that led him to his death.
/photo.cms?msid=891432
A visibly triumphant STF chief K. Vijay Kumar, a former police chief of Chennai, told a crowded news conference here that Veerappan, blamed for some 120 murders, was killed after a fierce 20-minute gun battle near Papparapatti village of Dharmapuri district, some 300 km from state capital Chennai.

STF personnel in civilian clothes, hiding along both sides of a jungle track halted the van, supposedly an ambulance, at 10.50 p.m. after being tipped off about his movements and asked him to surrender, Kumar said. But Veerappan opened fire, sparking a firefight.

In no time, Veerappan, who was not wearing his usual battle fatigues and had trimmed his moustache apparently to hide his identity, lay dead along with three of his hardcore associates, Sethukuli Govindan, Chandra Gowda and Govindan. Veerappan took bullets in the head and an eye.

Asked where Veerappan was heading to, Vijaykumar said probably the sandalwood smuggler, who had an eye problem, was going for some treatment.

The STF seized two AK-47 rifles, a 12 bore shotgun and a 7.62 self-loading rifle besides cash and three grenades from the dead men.

The killing sparked off celebrations in STF camps in the area, with its personnel bursting firecrackers and lighting colourful flares, brightening the forest sky well before dawn.

The STF chief, who had tonsured his head as a vow for the killing of Veerappan, said pressure was put on the brigand to come out of the jungle to an area where the STF had an advantage.

"This is a Diwali gift for the people of Tamil Nadu and the families of Veerappan's victims," said an STF officer. Both Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha and DMK chief M. Karunanidhi hailed his death as did former deputy prime minister L.K. Advani.

The deaths mark the end of a man who at one time virtually ruled a sprawling 6,000-sq km thickly forested region where he killed men in cold blood, murdered elephants for their ivory and cut sandalwood trees for smuggling, building a vast criminal empire that had no parallel.
Kumar, dressed in STF battle fatigues and flanked by dozens of his colleagues, including men who spied on Veerappan, admitted that the man they had killed was no ordinary criminal. 
/photo.cms?msid=891438
Bodies of Veerappan and his men at Dharampuri hospital on Tuesday. (AFP photo)
"He was a worthy foe, he was not easy to get," Kumar said, speaking alternatively in English and Tamil in this small town.

The STF chief revealed that the security forces of both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka had together stepped up pressure on Veerappan in recent months, and the Tamil Nadu STF had been waiting for him to emerge from his hideout.

"We watched him for several days," he said. He said some of his men infiltrated villages in the region by taking up jobs as hawkers, waiters at small restaurants and bus conductors.

"We penetrated even (Tamil Nadu's) jails," he said. "All this gave us good results."

Kumar gave equal credit to Karnataka's security forces for the killing of Veerappan, who began life as a small time criminal but ended up building a gang of his own and earning the reputation of one who would spare none who came in his way.

Although his first murder was reportedly committed in 1969, his killing spree began in right earnest in July 1987 when he abducted and killed a forest officer of Tamil Nadu. Two years later he murdered five men of a rival gang.

Veerappan's terror reign took firm roots when he killed and mutilated three Tamil Nadu forest personnel in August 1989 and shot dead a Tamil Nadu sub-inspector and a head constable the next January.

In May 1990, the STF was set up to catch him, but the man always remained one step ahead of his pursuers. In the process, Veerappan, who came from a poor family, cocked a snook at the governments of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, making a mockery of the thousands of men deployed to track him down.
/photo.cms?msid=891452
Veerappan had trimmed his handlebar moustache. (AFP photo)
This soon turned into the country's largest manhunt for any criminal. Veerappan commanded a price Rs.3 crore (Rs.30 million) on his head.

Veerappan's heartless methods were in full display when he lured R. Srinivas, a senior forest official who he blamed for his sister's death, into his lair and personally beheaded him. This was in November 1990.

Then in August 1992, to avenge the death of four of his gang members, he trapped STF Superintendent of Police Hari Krishna, tied him with grenades and blew him up along with five other policemen.

In 1993, the central government stepped in, deploying the Border Security Force (BSF) to assist the STF. That did not bring the desired results although the BSF managed to kill some of his associates.

In recent years, Veerappan moved closer to Tamil extremists in Tamil Nadu known to be sympathetic to Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger guerrillas, becoming a larger than life figure. 

Veerappan: Beera of Ravan movie: robin hood for the poor


 These photos throw light on the kind of life Veerapan leads in his forest hideout...»
  
Has anybody wondered why one of India's most wanted criminals, with an official murder tally of 120 people, managed to remain invisible for more than four decades? Why is it that a force dedicated especially to capture him (STF), has been unable to drag him out from his natural habitat, the sandalwood forest, in 10 years?

First of all, the nation and especially the task force, needs to understand that Veerappan is not a myth. Of course, he remained virtually a mythical figure until a Nakkeeran reporter, Sivasubramaniam, brought him to limelight in the early 1990s. Ironically, the Tamil Nadu and Karnataka police did not even have the latest photograph of Veerappan until Nakkeeran broke the story. A lot has happened since then, but the bandit remains elusive to the police but visible to the local tribes who have nourished his ‘Robin Hood’ image.
Veerappan's roots
Nothing much is recorded or written about the brigand's early childhood or family background. All that is known is that he was born into a poor and backward Tamil-speaking Padayachi family. The village was Gopinatham in the Kollegal taluk of Karnataka, bordering Tamil Nadu. Since Gopinatham is set in the mountainous forest region, Veerappan was a natural in the jungles that would become his habitat for the rest of his life.
Early hits
It is not known how he took to the life of crime. Locals say that he was inspired by Malayur Mammattiyan, a notorious bandit of the 1950s and 60s, who hailed from Salem, close to Veerappan's native village. Veerappan's first recorded murder was that of Paramasivam, brother of Karuppan who killed Malayur Mammattiyan in an inter-gang war. However, Veerappan came into prominence only after he killed Tamil Nadu forest officer Chidambaram in July 1987. Apparently, Chidambaram was killed because he was an honest forest officer who sought to end sandalwood smuggling.
It seems logical that Veerappan took to sandalwood smuggling and poaching much earlier, probably in the late 1970s, as he was arrested sometime in 1986 by the Karnataka police and lodged in Mysore jail. This is the only time Veerappan has ever been in custody.
A seasoned criminal
Veerappan's crime graph shows that initially he targetted only forest officials who came in the way. They included Karnataka Deputy Conservator of Forests P Srinivas who believed that he could reform the brigand. Veerappan lured him into the forest on the offer of surrender and shot him dead. He left his severed head on a rock to serve as a warning to others. Some local sources say that Srinivas got too close to Veerappan and was also involved with his sister.
The hunt
Following the brutal murder of Srinivas, the Tamil Nadu and Karnataka Governments constituted the Special Task Forces in May 1990. From then on, it has been a long battle between the Veerappan gang and the police in which more than 100 persons have been killed by the bandit, at least half of them police personnel.

Veerappan was on the run from 1991 to 96, when the Tamil Nadu STF was headed by Additional Director General of Police Walter Dawaram, known to be a ruthless cop. It was also the period when several innocent tribals were tortured, detained illegally or under TADA or shot dead in fake encounters on charges of supplying ration and extending such other help to Veerappan.

That was when Veerappan turned to quarry owners on both sides of the border for help. The quarry owners had no choice but to cough up "protection money". Apparently, they also supplied explosives with which Veerappan ambushed Tamil Nadu police patrols.
Dawaram claims that during that period, the STF reduced Veerappan gang's strength from 150 to eight. Many find it hard to believe that Veerappan was moving about with such a large entourage and yet was invisible to the police. But the fact remains that Veerappan felt the heat thanks to sustained STF operations and frequent encounters...
Abduction business
Veerappan turned to hostage-taking in December 1994.The first victim was a deputy superintendent of police in Coimbatore district, Chidambaranathan. Veerappan seized him during a visit to his farmhouse in Sirumugai. The compelling reason for this was not just to press for amnesty, which of course Veerappan did, but to get urgent medical aid for his brother Arjunan, who was wounded in an encounter.
Arjunan was allowed to come out, given treatment and detained after the hostage crisis ended with a police raid. Arjunan and two other gang members were reportedly bumped off while being transported to Mysore. The police version is they committed suicide by consuming cyanide.
Veerappan took hostages on two more occasions in 1997 to press for general amnesty, but eventually released them unconditionally and unharmed. The DMK, which was in power from 1996 to 2001, was known for being sympathetic to him but obviously could not give into his demand for amnesty.
Veerappan's pinnacle
It was Dr Rajkumar's abduction in July 2000 which got him national attention. For the first time, it became known that Veerappan had included in his gang members of two dreaded Tamil extremist outfits, the Tamil Nadu Liberation Army and the Tamil National Retrieval Troops, both modeled on the LTTE.
The nexus came to police notice when Veerappan and members of these two gangs launched a joint attack on a police station near Sathyamangalam in December 1998.
But they kept it a closely guarded secret. The nexus came to light when Rajkumar was abducted. Of course Veerappan had to release Rajkumar eventually when it became apparent that the two Governments would resume combing operations. Two major demands put forward by Veerappan concerned the release of five TNLA and TNRT extremists in Tamil Nadu jails and 51 TADA detenus in Mysore jail. The extremists are still in jail. But the TADA detenus have since been released by the Mysore sessions court.
Will he get caught?
Now Veerappan has struck again. Can he ever be caught? The chances are slim. He operates in a 6,000 sq km jungle. His survival instinct is strong. He has been known to be ruthless with his own community if anyone was known to help the police. At the same time, he has been generous with money to those who help him. As a result, he has acquired a Robin Hood image which the police find hard to fight.
While the police have all the latest gadgets, including AK-47 assault rifles and night vision binoculors, Veerappan still carries old hunting rifles. Though in his mid-50s, Veerappan is still physically active. He is constantly on the move, sometimes walking 40 kms a day. The jungle is so thick in some places that the visibility will be hardly 30 ft during daytime. He always pitches camp, for lunch or dinner, at a place which gives him a commanding height.
And finally, his information network has proved to be far more faster and reliable than the police's. He has struck twice in the same place, abducting Nagappa just a little over two years after seizing Rajkumar. And choosing the day when Rajkumar is on a visit to his farm house near Kollegal, the first since his abduction from there, and all police force is concentrated on the actor.

As always with Veerappan, it is a question of chance

Drugs rocket in AP