Kanchana Review

Larencce, once a choreographer, was promoted as a director by Nagarjuna with 'Mass'. His next film as director is 'Style' where he himself played the hero. Both the films were big hits. Some time later, he directed 'Muni' which was not that successful. But, he had decided to bring out a sequel to 'Muni' and that was how 'Kanchana' took shape. The film was a thriller and Lawrence worked out the entire script in an impressive manner and it was Saratkumar who brought life into the film, by portraying a different role.

Story

Raghava (Larencce) is a carefree boy and he loves to play cricket with friends. Though he is daring and dashing during daytime and could be able to thrash even goons, he is a timid fellow during night as he was scared of darkness and ghosts. He stays with his brother (Sriman), sister-in-law (Manobala) and mother (Kovai Sarala) and two children of his brother. While searching for a good playground, Raghava and his friends find a vacant place and clean it and make it a good playground. Unfortunately, that place belongs to one eunuch called Kanchana (Saratkumar).

In fact Karthik, a boy was pushed out of home in childhood for behaving differently and for showing the signs of a girl, though he was a boy. Knowing that he is behaving like a girl because he was a eunuch, a Muslim brings him up with the name 'Kanchana'. Noticing that everyone hates eunuchs for no fault of theirs, 'Kanchana', who had an ambition to become a doctor, adopts another eunuch and gives her good education and makes her to study sincerely. Her efforts turn fruitful and that girl stands first in her plus 2 studies. The school which gave her education agrees to bear the entire expenditure for her MBBS course. But, Kanchana saves Rs 25 lakh for her education and she wants to spend the money to build a hospital and purchases land. Local MLA (Devan) unauthorisedly occupies that land. When Kanchana goes to the MLA to question him, Kanchana, the Muslim, who brought her up and his mentally challenged son get killed by the MLA. So Kanchana turns a ghost and decides to avenge her killing. It was the same land where Raghava and his friends cleared for playing cricket. Raghava unknowingly brings the three ghosts to his home along with him.

Raghava's mother and sister-in-law find Raghava behaving indifferently by wearing sarees, using haldi while taking bath and wearing the bangles. Noticing this, they approach a Muslim peer in a dargah to throw them away. The Muslim Peer captures the ghosts and questions who were they and Kanchana reveal the entire flashback. The Muslim Peer ties a thread to Raghava and warns him not to remove it as it may bring back Kanchana. Whether Raghava removed the thread to help Kanchana avenge her death? Did Kanchana able to teach a lesson to the MLA? Did Kanchana's ambition to build a hospital for her adopted daughter was fulfilled? Answers to all these questions form part of the climax.

Performance

Though Saratkumar made an entry just before the interval bang and appeared in a few scenes in the second half, he gave a superb performance and filled the life into the entire film. A hero of Saratkumar stature accepting to portray the role of a eunuch is something noteworthy and he lived in the character. Raghava Larencce, who played the lead role did justice to his role and he did the character with good ease. Lakshmi Rai, who played the ladylove of the hero, filled the glamour slot perfectly. Devan is justified as a politician with a touch of negative role. Other artistes did justice to their roles.

Clapworthy Moments

Especially, the scene, where 'Kanchana' pleads with the parents not to throw away the children who were behaving indifferently and not to show hatred towards eunuchs as they are not at fault individually. needs a standing ovation. Raghava Larencce did justice to his role and he excelled in eunuch's role in the song that came before the climax. Picturisation of the ghost scenes, use of graphics to create the visuals of snakes in the climax song denotes the director's commitment in giving the best output. The director made minor changes to introduce anxious factor Performance of Sriman and Saratkumar is noteworthy.

Cringeworthy Moments

First 30 minutes of the film bored the audiences with loud noise of all the artistes including Kovai Sarala, Lawrence, Manobala, making the audiences start hating the `Arava Athi'. Scenes like Larencce taking Kovai to bathroom, Manobala and Kovai scared of each other are peaks of frustration. Thaman's music is gibberish in the background and songs are also not so impressive. But for these Arava Athi scenes, the film is good to watch.

Verdict

The audiences could watch Larencce's directorial expertise in making the film with a good message on the social stigma attached to eunuchs.

Released on: 15th July, 2011