Koose Munisamy Veerappan – Unseen footage of slain forest brigand in new docuseries

Forest brigand Veerappan has been dead for almost two decades, but he continues to fascinate filmmakers across generations, with films and documentaries about his life making it to our screens, big and small, every now and then. This year, there’s already been a successful Netflix documentary called The Hunt For Veerappan and now, Zee5 is getting into the act with a docuseries called Koose Munisamy Veerappan – Unseen Veerappan Tapes. Set to drop on the platform in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi, the trump card of the series by director Sharath Jothi is that it supposedly features previously unseen footage of the slain brigand.

The official synopsis of the series, the trailer of which was released earlier today, reads, “Explore the intriguing life of Veerappan as he guides us through his journey using never-before-seen video tapes. Gain new insights through the perspectives of eminent personalities, enhanced with a captivating reimagination of events in this documentary series.” The docuseries will feature interviews with Nakkheeran Gopal, Seeman, N. Ram, Pa Pa Mohan, Subbu aka Subramanyan, Alexander IPS, Rohini, Jeeva Thangavel, Mohan Kumar and Dhamayanthi. Nakkheeran Gopal, for instance, was one of the main negotiators during the Rajkumar abduction.

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What would be interesting to see is the tone that Sharath Jothi’s series takes. The Hunt For Veerappan was widely seen as a pro-Veerappan piece, with much of the narrative presented as told by the forest brigand’s wife Muthulakshmi and with the alleged human rights atrocities of the police force, especially from Karnataka, being highlighted. The trailer of Koose Munisamy Veerappan – Unseen Veerappan Tapes has a relatively objective tone, but whether it holds true for the show will have to be seen when it drops on the platform on December 8.

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