Wild West Down South

Ram Gopal Varma, India's biggest mob-movie merchant, must be turning in his bed ever since he read this. The news story that came from the bandlands of Andhra Pradesh this morning would automatically make the screenplay for another of his potboilers. No masala required.

A high-profile sharpshooter, accused of killing an ex-minister (allegedy at the behest of the current chief minister) was done to death in a high-security prison in Anantpur district of A.P. by a triple-murder accused, using makeshift dumbbells. The wife of the deceased ex-minister, Paritala Ravi, is now screaming "bloody murder".

The shooter, J. Srivinasa Reddy, a.k.a. Moddu Seenu, had just turned approver and was about to spill the beans on the conspiracy behind Ravi's assassination (a CBI investigation into the case is still on, 3 years after his death). A frightened administration has eliminated him, charged Ravi's wife.

Paritala Ravi's life story is fodder enough for a typical RGV flick.

The Rayalaseema area of AP--of which Anantpur is the most infamous district--has always been volatile, with bloody factional and caste feuds. But the rise of P. Ravi catapulted it to the cover pages of voilent folklore.

Ravi was the son of a landlord who gave up all his land to the poor and joined the Communist Party. But a couple of Reddy landlords from the same area started grabbing this land from the helpless farmers. The land struggle soon transmogrified into a 30-year killing spree between Ravi's family and friends on the one side and the Reddys and their sons on the other.

Escaping from his home village when his brother was shot dead by the police, Ravi joined the Naxals (like his brother) and came back to wreak vengeance on the Reddys and their henchmen and hack down anyone who stood in his way. He took their wealth and gave away large sums to the poor and needy. He also arranged mass weddings for those who could not afford a ceremony on their big day. A new, telugu Robin Hood had been born.

His popularity got him back into the mainstream and he became a 4-time TDP MLA and labour minister in the Chandrababu Naidu government. Soon after Naidu lost the last elections and YS Rajashekhar Reddy took over the reins of the state, Ravi was gunned down.

His killer Seenu was on the run for 10 months before being captured. In the meantime, he gave an interview to a TV channel bragging how he had shot Ravi right between the eyes. He was making a bomb in the heart of Hyderabad when it went off accidentally, landing him first in hospital and later in prison.

However, Seenu recently decided to turn approver. Enter Omprakash, an inter-state dacoit with three murder charges against him. He was placed in the same barracks as Seenu and, according to him, was being harassed by the shooter. "Seenu did not allow me to write Ram Koti, he kept on asking me to switch off the light," Omprakash seems to have stated as the reason for bludgeoning Seenu to death.

Ram Koti is an endeavour, popular in the south, to gain punya and atone for one's sins by writing the name of Lord Ram a crore times. How exactly Omprakash intends to get on the right side of the Lord now is something RGV will probably have to figure out if and when he scripts a film on this saga.