A Watchable Fare But Lacks The Charm That A Sequel Of Tamil's Most Celebrated Teen School Drama Serial Requires.

Kana Kaanum Kaalangal Reboot - A watchable fare but lacks the charm that a sequel of Tamil's most celebrated teen school drama serial requires. 

Kana Kaanum Kaalangal was a trendsetter in Tamil television history that presented us with a memorable coming-of-age teen school drama. It was the first Tamil soap opera on school life and was aired on Vijay TV in the late 2010s. The show has been made for several seasons which is a huge success. It was followed by Kana Kaanum Kaalangal Kallooriyin Kadhai and Kana Kaanum Kalangal Kalloori Saalai, the sequels based on college life. Now, Disney Plus Hotstar has made a reboot of the Kana Kaanum Kaalangal and whether it has lived up to the legacy of the name is to be discussed. 

The first 4 episodes of the reboot have been out on the OTT platform and new episodes will be dropped every Friday. The story opens with the Siragugal School reopening for the 11th and 12th class students after 2 years of lockdown. Plenty has changed during the pandemic time for the old students, they hardly maintain a good relationship with the newcomers. And some of the new students are trying to come out of a bitter past and struggling to build a new life using this second chance. Meanwhile, the school management faces a big challenge which upsets both the staff members and students. 

Teja Venkatesh (Nandhini), Vazhakku Enn fame Muthuraman (Warden), veteran actor Rajesh (Correspondent Sakthivel) and VJ Sangeetha (Malar Teacher) have delivered notable performances while Aravind Seiju (Kalai) tries to display a decent performance. The story has numerous unwanted elements for a teen school drama as we get to see conspiracy happening outside the classes more than what's going on inside the classrooms. 

The screenplay lacks the magic that the original series had. Most of the humour part sounds so forced and fails to make us laugh. Also, the casting was too generic as some of the actors look too mature to portray a high school student. On the brighter side, it has some good moments and an interesting premise to have better episodes. It is so soon to write it off completely. 

Verdict: Kana Kaanum Kaalangal reboot is an average wanna-be teen school drama. It presents us some good moments though it doesn't have any impactful scenes for a coming-of-age show.