Veerappan: India's Most Wanted Man

Rating:
Summary: Very good book.. must read..
Review: as a veerappan fan i found this book very good. Author sunaad did not fall in either veerappan side or on police side. He mentioned atrocities of both sides. There are few not clear or false items but other than that book is very good and a must read for all south indian news followers. as veerappan got killed by police recently. i am really interested if the same author can write a book regarding his death. i am sure veerappan did not get killed by police encounter and police is not telling the truth.

My god rest Verappan's soul.

Rating:
Summary: A long pending desire fulfilled!
Review: I came to this book knowing nothing about Veerappan other than he is a famous Indian bandit who has been at large for thirty years. Unfortunately, what could have been a fascinating account of the transformation of a poor villager to locally respected sandalwood and ivory poacher, to nationally famous extortionist and murderer and Tamil nationalist, instead devolves into a rather boring blow-by-blow report of his activities from the mid-'80s up to and including his famous kidnapping of the aging film star Rajkumar in 2000. Journalist Raghuram does a relatively good job of explaining the bandit's background and introduction to a life of crime, but once he starts detailing his crimes and the police attempts to capture him, the book takes on the stunningly dry tone of official reports.

Raghuram recreates the setting and execution of several dozen of Veerappan's murders-which total around 140, including many many assorted police officers. What emerges is not a tale of a modern-day Robin Hood, but one of a vicious murderer who steals to sustain his own band of forest-dwelling killers. His criminal activities escalated over time, starting with simple poaching, and then expanding to extortion and kidnapping. And once the authorities began to get serious about arresting him, Veerappan engaged in tit-for-tat retribution, killing suspected informers, ambushing police convoys with guns and explosives, attacking police stations, and even targeting specific officers.

The efforts made to capture him are given great attention, and while a certain level of individual police bravery and effort is noted, a more general bureaucratic incompetence underlies everything. The primarily stems from lack of cooperation between the southern states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, where Veerappan operates. Nor is police brutality overlooked, as Raghuram notes the severe treatment of captured members of Veerappan's gang at the hands of the police, ranging from outright murder, to torture, sexual abuse, and indefinite incarceration.

Beyond the general dry prose, the book suffers from a arcane array of abbreviations and acronyms, all of which are explained in the glossary in the back, but make for choppy reading. Similarly, for a Western reader, the barrage of names is likely to be overly intrusive. Do we really need to know the full name of every forester and driver's assistant involved in the narrative? Another constant problem is that key to Veerappan's elusiveness is the geography he operates in, which Raghuram's text brings to life, but is supported by only one remarkably poor map.

Where the book really breaks down in Part V, the final 75 pages, which detail the kidnapping of Rajkumar. Here, the tale of Veerappan starts intertwining with the bewildering details of local and national Indian politics. It's too bad, 'cause Veerappan's new alliance with Marxist Tamil terrorist/freedom fighters is rather intriguing, but it all gets lost in a lengthy section detailing legal battles to keep captured members of his gang in jail.

Rating:
Summary: A long pending desire fulfilled!
Review: I was so terribly curious to know more about this bandit called Veerappan. And finally, my desire to understand the man and his methods has been fulfilled by this gripping book.

This is a book for all India-watchers who have the inclination to know the country beyond its computer software credentials! It is amazing how one man, the bandit in question, can do all the things that he has done.

The author, Sunaad, deserves a pat on the back for having recreated the entire story without once slacking in the narration.

All in all, a fine read, this book!

Rating:
Summary: A highly credible account in the face of media exagerration!
Review: This book by Sunaad Raghuram tells us the real story of Veerappan, sifitng so perfectly the wheat from the chaff, as it were. Handling a subject which is essentially given to hyperbole and exagerration-as indulged by vast sections of the media- is definitely not easy.

But Sunaad Raghuram does it with professional ease and gives us a remarkably believable account of the brigand who has been bestowed with almost super-human abilitites.

His writing style is direct, to the point, without any frills and throrougly riveting. An exhaustive work; one which leaves you with almost everything that you always wanted to know about the bandit who has been like none other in the world's history of crime.

Rating:
Summary: It was time someone did it!
Review: Well, I always wondered why anyone had not attempted a biography of a man who had taken a whole country's imagination with him for so long. And boy, was the wait worth it!

Sunaad Raghuram has achieved what not one other journalist on the trail of the bandit has. And how does he do it? With style, aplomb, finesse and authenticity.

Starting by detailing the history of crime in Veerappan's part of the world and going on to describe vividly the many chilling incidents in the bandit's story, Sunaad does a fine job of unravelling the whole scene layer by layer.
This is a book which will remain in memory long after it has been closed. More so for readers of Indian origin who would probably know a thing or two of the story's setting.