The Hunt for Veerappan is an Indian true crime docuseries released on Netflix on August 4, 2023. It is directed by Selvamani Selvaraj and executive produced by Apoorva Bakshi, Monisha Thyagarajan and Kimberley Hassett. There are 4 episodes in the documentary series, with a runtime of about 46-56 minutes.
The series features journalists and forest police officials associated with the case including Sunaad Raghuram, BK Singh, KM Govindam, Mahalingam, Amburaj, Tiger Ashok Kumar, Selvi and K Munuswami, Muthulakshmi, K Arkesh, Venugopal, Siva Subramaniam, Maaran and several others.
The Hunt for Veerappan Review
The documentary traces the events from the year 1989 when Veerappan’s notoriety was becoming popular among the MM Hills forest officers. He had been illegally poaching elephants and eventually moved on to Sandalwood smuggling. It has been recorded that he killed approximately 1000 elephants and more than 65 tons of wood. But his crimes weren’t limited to these, as he wouldn’t hesitate to kill anyone who would come in his way of making money or suspect of working with the police to catch him.
His wife Muthulakshmi presents a loving image of her husband, who valued honest and loyal people. She even shares the start of her relationship with Veerappan, which sounds pretty sweet – as he expresses his love for her and the promise to stay single if she rejected him. Until you get to know that she was only 15 when she got his marriage proposal and he was a 39-year-old man.
In a way, she was groomed by him but he treated her with love and care, thus she grieves the loss of her partner and calls him brave. He was indeed hailed as the Forest Angel or the Robinhood by his village people. The MM Hills forest was his playground and home for years while on the run. It was due to the difficult terrain that he was able to avoid the Special Task Forces for almost 20 years.
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The documentary also questions the reason behind Veerappan’s indulgence in the world of crime. They briefly talk about how the lack of job opportunities and low standard of living might have pushed him to pick up the arms and make his own way to earn money. It doesn’t seem like he wanted to be the terrifying leader of the area forever. If anything, he was allegedly making plans to run away with his wife to another place and live peacefully (?) But the question remains if he had abandoned his criminal way of life after moving.
It’s really baffling to see how it took two decades of chasing to finally catch the man, and that too with an ambush. Many however suspect that the STF had already caught him, tortured and then placed his body in the decoy ambulance where the snipers shot him and his gang members dead.
What sets him apart is that he didn’t commit crimes for sadistic pleasure or for the sake of it, but when he deemed it necessary and to get what he wanted/get revenge for the injustice on his people. He did have some integrity and a warm human side to him that could win over anyone and also the reason why his captives like actor Rajkumar were never harmed.
The series mostly traces the events that happened in the course of capturing him over the years but they have left out the events post his death in 2004. For example, what happened to Muthulakshmi and her two daughters? She is briefly shown to have joined the social sector and helped people wrongly accused in association with Veerappan. Overall, it presents an image of an outlaw, who meant completely different things to different people, be it a menace to society or a kind helper of his people.
Rating: 3/5
The Hunt for Veerappan is currently streaming on Netflix.
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