Kanchana (2011 film)

Kanchana (also known as Muni 2: Kanchana) is a 2011 Indian Tamil-language horror comedy film written, produced and directed by Raghava Lawrence as a sequel to his previous venture, Muni (2007) and the second film in the installment of Muni film series. The film features himself alongside Sarathkumar, and Lakshmi Rai in the lead roles, while Kovai Sarala, Devadarshini and Sriman play supporting roles.

Kanchana
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRaghava Lawrence
Produced byRaghava Lawrence
Written byRaghava Lawrence
Starring
Music bySai Thaman
CinematographyVetri
E. Krishnasamy
Edited byKishore Te.
Production
company
Distributed bySun Pictures
Release date
  • 15 July 2011 (2011-07-15) (India)
Running time
170 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageTamil
Budget₹7 crore[1]

The film revolves around Raghava, who is scared to venture outside gets possessed by a ghost and starts behaving weirdly. The film's cinematography and editing was handled by Vetri and Kishore Te. respectively. The film's soundtrack was composed by Sai Thaman. The film's distribution rights were bought by Sri Thenandal Films.

Kanchana's Tamil version was released on 22 July 2011 while a same-titled Telugu dubbed version was released a week earlier on 15 July 2011.[1][2] Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, the film became a commercial success in both languages.[3][4] The film has been remade several times including – in Kannada as Kalpana, in Sinhala Sri Lanka as Maya, in Bengali Bangladesh as Mayabiny, and in Hindi as Laxmii.

Plot

Raghava is a typical jobless man but a lovable person who spends his days playing cricket with friends. He suffers from an irrational fear of ghosts and retreats to the safety of his home after sunset. His fear is so great he prefers to sleep with his mother and has her accompany him to the bathroom at night. This creates a major annoyance in the household, including Raghava's brother, sister-in-law, and their children.

One day, Raghava and his friends are forced to abandon their usual football ground and find a new one; they unwittingly select an abandoned ground which is rumoured to be haunted. A bizarre weather change scares them away. Raghava brings home his cricket stumps, which have been stained with blood from a buried corpse in the ground. He focuses on wooing Priya , his sister-in-law's sister. In the following days, his mother and sister-in-law witnesses several paranormal activities at night because of a ghost. On consulting a priest, they perform three rituals to ascertain if the house is haunted:

1. They keep a coconut on a rangoli and pray to Shiva. If the coconut spins, it is considered that the house is haunted, but only 50% sure. They start to do the next ritual.

2. They make a cow eat food. If the cow runs out of the house without eating the food, the house is considered to be haunted, but they just want to make sure and start to do the next one but are 75% sure.

3. They leave a lamp lit and two drops of blood and leave the house, stopping the electricity. Then the ghost of the woman appears and licks the blood. This is seen by the people, who were scared and ran away from the house for that night.

Scared senseless, Raghava's mother and sister-in-law hire two priests to get rid of the ghost from their house. The priests, however, are conmen, and run away after seeing the real ghost. That night, the ghost possesses Raghava, who begins acting increasingly effeminate, alienating himself from Priya and wearing women's clothes and jewelry. His family angrily confronts him, when it is revealed that there are actually three ghosts who have possessed him: a violent woman, a Hindi-speaking Muslim, and a mentally disabled boy. Raghava's family hires an exorcist, who drives the spirit away from Raghava's body. The ghost of the woman, trapped, reveals her story.

Karthik alias Kanchana is a transgender woman who was disowned by her parents. She is offered shelter by a kind Muslim named Bhai, who has an intellectually disabled son. Regretting that she could not become a doctor as she intended, she adopts another young transgender girl named Krishna alias Geetha and works hard to support her financially. When Geetha leaves to study medicine abroad, Kanchana buys a plot of land where Geetha intended to construct a hospital for the poor. That ground is unlawfully taken by the crooked MLA Shankar . Kanchana angrily confronts Shankar, who kills her. He also kills Bhai and his son. Before Kanchana died, she vowed to kill Shankar, his wife, and his henchmen. The bodies are then buried in Kanchana's own ground.

The exorcist sympathizes with her but remains duty-bound and traps her. After hearing her story, Raghava is touched; risking the danger, he allows Kanchana to possess him once again. Raghava/Kanchana confronts Shankar and disposes of his henchmen gruesomely. Shankar seeks refuge in a Narasimha temple which Kanchana is forbidden from; but she asks the deity for justice and manages to chase him inside the temple. The three spirits combined kill Shankar. A few years later, Raghava has constructed the hospital for Geetha as per Kanchana's wishes. He also unites with Priya. Priya then reveals to Raghava's mother that she is pregnant by Raghava. Raghava's mother gets shocked. It is revealed that Kanchana exists symbiotically in Raghava's and his child's body to help him out when the need rises.

Cast

Soundtrack

The film's original soundtrack has been composed by S. Thaman.[5]

Muni 2: Kanchana
Soundtrack album by
S. Thaman
Released11 May 2011
GenreFeature film soundtrack
Length18:13
LanguageTamil
S. Thaman chronology
Veera
(2011)		 Muni 2: Kanchana
(2011)		 Vandhaan Vendraan
(2011)
Track listing
No.TitleLyricsSinger(s)Length
1."Nillu Nillu Nillu Nillu"Raghava LawrenceTippu, Vijay Prakash4:58
2."Sangili Bungili"VivekaVelmurugan, Kailash Kher3:56
3."Karuppu Perazaga"VivekaSuchith Suresan, Darshana KT5:00
4."Kodiavanin Kadhaya"VivekaSriram, MLR Karthikeyan and Malathy Lakshman4:19
Total length:18:13

Reception

Critical response

The film received mixed reviews from critics.[6][7][8] Rediff wrote "It is torturous and tedious to watch, the chills and thrills are not spine-chilling and a soundtrack that is supposed to be eerie is anything but. There's quite a bit of unintended comedy too".[9] Great Andhra wrote "As for Lawrence, his intention was to target the mass audience and he has been fairly successful in his attempt as compared to his prequel by infusing good depth and emotional intensity".[10] Sify wrote:"On the whole, Kanchana is an entertaining affair and can be watched once".[11]

Box office

According to Sify, Kanchana emerged 2011's most successful Tamil film based on return on investment.[1] The film, made on a budget of ₹7 crore (US$980,000) and marketed for ₹1.5 crore (US$210,000), had its Telugu dubbing rights sold to Bellamkonda Suresh for ₹4 crore (US$560,000). The film grossed around ₹20 crore (US$2.8 million) share from Tamil Nadu alone at the end of its run.[1]

Accolades
Vijay Awards
1st South Indian International Movie Awards

Sequel and remakes

In early 2012, sources claimed that Raghava Lawrence was planning to make a third part of Muni.[12][13][14] Furthermore, it was suggested that Lawrence's brother might play the lead role in the sequel. Instead, he danced with his brother in a cameo for the film. Eventually the third installment Kanchana 2[14] was released on 17 April 2015 and fourth installment Kanchana 3 was released on 19 April 2019 both were commercial success at the box office.

Rama Narayanan, who distributed the Tamil version directed the Kannada remake of the film titled Kalpana with Upendra playing lead role and Sai Kumar playing the transgender role and Lakshmi Rai reprising her role from the original film. It was released in September 2012.[15]

In the 2016 Sri Lankan remake, Maya, directed by Donald Jayantha, Ranjan Ramanayake played the role initially portrayed by Sarath Kumar as Kanchana.[16] It was unofficially remade as Tar Tay Gyi (2017) in Myanmar.[17] In 2017, the Bangladeshi remake of the film released titled Mayabini starring Amit Hasan as Kanchana.

Lawrence himself directed the Hindi remake titled Laxmii starring Akshay Kumar and Kiara Advani. It released on the online streaming service Disney+Hotstar on 9 November 2020.[18]

Legacy

The song "Sangili Bungili Kadhava Thora" inspired a 2017 film of same name starring Jiiva which was also based on the genre of horror-comedy.[19]

See also

References
  1. "Lawrence`s Kanchana strikes gold". Archived from the original on 14 March 2014. Retrieved 1 August 2011.
  2. "Friday Fiesta 220711 - Tamil Movie News". IndiaGlitz. 22 July 2011. Retrieved 6 August 2012.
  3. "'Kanchana', a big hit than expected". IndiaGlitz. 22 July 2011. Retrieved 6 August 2012.
  4. The New Indian Express - News on India, Politics, Business, Cricket &amp Sports
  5. Sheilah Wenning says (31 January 2012). "Kanchana Muni — Part 2 (2011) Tamil MP3 Songs, Soundtracks, Music Album Download". Download South MP3. Retrieved 6 August 2012.
  6. "Kanchana review: Kanchana (Telugu) Movie Review — fullhyd.com". Movies.fullhyderabad.com. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  7. "Kanchana Review". Behindwoods. 4 July 2011. Retrieved 6 August 2012.
  8. Ramachandran, Rohit (22 July 2011). "Kanchana Review". Nowrunning.com. Retrieved 6 August 2012.
  9. "Review: Kanchana is torture to watch". Rediff. 15 July 2011. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  10. Published Date : 15-Jul-2011 06:33:45 GMT (15 July 2011). "'Kanchana' Review: Horror On Emotion". Greatandhra.com. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  11. "Movie Review : Kanchana". Sify. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  12. "Will There Be A Muni 3?". Behindwoods. 1 March 2012. Retrieved 6 August 2012.
  13. "Make way for 'Munni 3'! - Tamil Movie News". IndiaGlitz. 29 February 2012. Retrieved 6 August 2012.
  14. Anupama Subramaniam DC chennai (29 February 2012). "Lawrence gearing up for a sequel". Deccan Chronicle. Retrieved 6 August 2012.
  15. Ramchander (3 November 2011). "Upendra to remake Kanchana?". Oneindia. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  16. Srinivasan, Meera (28 October 2017). "Now, Mersal finds a supporter in Sri Lanka". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
  17. "'New wave' directors take movie industry forward". Frontier Myanmar. 7 June 2018. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
  18. "Akshay Kumar film Laxmmi Bomb to premiere on Disney Plus Hotstar". Indian Express. 29 June 2020. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
  19. "Director Atlee to fund a film called Sangili Bungili Kadhava Thorae". 10 March 2016.
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