''Kanchana'' (also known as ''Muni 2: Kanchana'') is a 2011 Indian

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

-language

horror comedy Comedy horror, also known as horror comedy, is a literary, television, and film genre that combines elements of comedy and horror fiction. Comedy horror has been described as able to be categorized under three types: "black comedy, parody and spo ...

film written, produced and directed by

Raghava Lawrence Lawrence Raghavendra is an Indian dance choreographer, actor, director, composer, dancer and playback singer. After making his debut as a dance choreographer in 1993, he began looking for acting opportunities. He began his career as an actor in ...

. It is a sequel to his previous venture, ''

Muni Muni may refer to: Municipal * A common US abbreviation for municipal, municipal services, and the like *Municipal bond *Municipal Bridge, the former name of the George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge in Louisville, Kentucky *"Muni", slang for a mu ...

'' (2007) and the second installment in the ''

Muni (film series) ''Muni'' is an Indian horror comedy film series created and directed by Raghava Lawrence who also appeared in lead roles in all the films. The first film is ''Muni'' (2007) and the second is '' Muni 2: Kanchana'' (2011) with the third installme ...

''. The film stars Lawrence alongside

Sarathkumar Sarathkumar Ramanathan (born 14 July 1954) is an Indian actor, politician, filmmaker, and singer. He has acted in more than 130 Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. He has won two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards and three Filmfare Awards S ...

Kovai Sarala Kovai Sarala is an Indian actress and comedian, who prominently plays supporting roles in Tamil and Telugu films. She has won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Comedian three times, for her performances in '' Sathi Leelavathi'' (1995), '' ...

and

Lakshmi Rai Lakshmi (; , sometimes spelled Laxmi, ), also known as Shri (, ), is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism. She is the goddess of wealth, fortune, power, beauty, fertility and prosperity, and associated with ''Maya'' ("Illusion"). Alo ...

while

Devadarshini Devadarshini is an Indian actress who predominantly appears in Tamil films, in addition to few Telugu films and television series. She began her career as a television anchor before venturing into acting, first in television and then in films. ...

and

Sriman Sriman () is an epithet of the Hindu deity Vishnu. It refers to the deity being the possessor of Sri, both referring to his consort Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity, as well as the material and non material aspects of fortune. Literature Sri ...

play supporting roles. 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 Ghantasala Sai Srinivas Thaman (born 16 November 1983), known professionally as Thaman S, earlier as S S Thaman, is an Indian music composer, professional drummer, and playback singer who predominantly works in Telugu films and Tamil films. T ...

. The film's distribution rights were bought by

Sri Thenandal Films Thenandal Studios Limited (TSL), formerly known as Sri Thenandal Films and Sri Thenandal Pictures, is an Indian film production and distribution studio in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded by director Rama Narayanan. History Rama Narayanan se ...

.The Central Board Of Film Certification ( CBFC) gave the film an "A" Certificate for "Violence" and "Horror". ''Kanchana'''s Tamil version was released on 22 July 2011 while a same-titled

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

dubbed version was released a week earlier on 15 July 2011. Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, the film became a commercial success in both languages. The film has been remade several times including – in

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

as '' Kalpana,'' in Sinhala Sri Lanka as ''

Maya Maya may refer to: Civilizations * Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America ** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples ** Maya language, the languages of the Maya peoples * Maya (Ethiopia), a populat ...

'', in

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

Bangladesh as Mayabini, and in

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

as ''

Laxmii ''Laxmii'' is a 2020 Indian Hindi-language horror comedy film written and directed by Raghava Lawrence, marking his directorial debut in the Hindi film industry. A remake of his own Tamil film '' Kanchana'' (2011), it stars Akshay Kumar and Kiar ...

''; Lawrence acted as screenwriter on ''Kalpana'', while directing and co-writing ''Laxmii''.

Plot

Raghava is an unemployed lovable person, who spends his days playing

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

with his friends. He suffers from an irrational fear of ghosts and retreats to his home after sunset. His fear is so great that he prefers to sleep beside his mother and has her accompany him to the restroom 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 cricket 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 and their suspicion turns to be true. Raghava's mother and sister-in-law hire two priests to get rid of the ghost from their house. However, the priests are actually con men and escape after seeing the real ghost. That night, the ghost possesses Raghava, who begins acting increasingly

effeminate Effeminacy is the embodiment of traits and/or expressions in those who are not of the female sex (e.g. boys and men) that are often associated with what is generally perceived to be feminine behaviours, mannerisms, styles, or gender roles, rather ...

, alienating himself from Priya and wearing women's clothes and jewellery. His family angrily confronts him and it is revealed that there are actually three ghosts who have possessed him: a violent woman, an

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

, and a mentally disabled boy. Raghava's family hires an

exorcist In some religions, an exorcist (from the Greek „ἐξορκιστής“) is a person who is believed to be able to cast out the devil or performs the ridding of demons or other supernatural beings who are alleged to have possessed a person, ...

, who drives the spirits away from Raghava's body. However, the woman's ghost being trapped, reveals her past. Past: Karthik alias Kanchana is a

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

woman, who was disowned by her parents, and was later adopted by a kind Muslim named Akbar 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. However, the ground is unlawfully taken by the corrupt MLA Shankar. Kanchana angrily confronts Shankar, but Shankar kills her, and also kills Akbar 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. Present: The exorcist sympathizes with her but remains duty-bound and traps her. After hearing her story, Raghava decides to help Kanchana, and allows her to possess him once again. Raghava/Kanchana confronts Shankar and disposes of his henchmen gruesomely. Shankar seeks refuge in a

Narasimha Narasimha ( sa, नरसिंह, lit=man-lion, ), sometimes rendered Narasingha, is the fourth avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu. He is regarded to have incarnated in the form of a part-lion, part-man being to slay Hiranyakashipu, to end rel ...

temple, which Kanchana is forbidden from, but she asks the deity for justice and manages to chase him inside the temple. The three spirits combine and kill Shankar. A few years later, Raghava has constructed the hospital for Geetha as per Kanchana's wishes. He also unites with Priya. A few local goons, who came there to demand money, becomes scared when Raghava is possessed again by Kanchana, implying he will be possessed every now and then when needed help.

Cast

as Raghava / Kanchana (Possessed by R. Sarathkumar) *

R. Sarathkumar Sarathkumar Ramanathan (born 14 July 1954) is an Indian actor, politician, filmmaker, and singer. He has acted in more than 130 Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. He has won two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards and three Filmfare Award ...

as Karthik alias "Kanchana" * Aryan Preet as young Karthik alias Kanchana *

as Sarala - Raghava's mother *

as Priya - Raghava's girlfriend (Kamakshi's Younger sister) *

as Kamakshi - Raghava's sister-in-law and Priya's elder sister *

as Prasad - Raghava's elder brother and Kamakshi's husband * Devan as MLA Shankar

ain Antagonist Ain (, ; frp, En) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Eastern France. Named after the Ain river, it is bordered by the Saône and Rhône rivers. Ain is located on the country's eastern edge, on the Swiss border, where i ...

Babu Antony Babu Antony (born 22 February 1966) is an Indian-American actor and martial artist, who works primarily in Malayalam cinema. He has also acted in several Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Sinhalese, Hindi and English films. He started his career doing ...

as Akbar Bhai *

Priya Priya may refer to: * Priya (given name), a given name of Indian origin * Priya (actress) Karpagavalli better known by her stage name Priya is an Indian actress who worked on South Indian movies. She was a prominent lead actress during the ...

as Krishnan alias "Geetha" * Sarvesh Rao as young Geetha *

Manobala Manobala (born 8 December 1953) is an Indian film director, producer, actor and comedian who predominantly plays supporting roles in Tamil-language films. He started his career in Tamil cinema in the early 1970s and with Kamal Haasan's referen ...

as fake priest 1 *

Mayilsamy Mayilsamy (born October 2, 1965) is an Indian actor and comedian who prominently plays supporting roles. Appearing in many Tamil films, he is also a regular guest judge on '' Asathapovathu Yaaru'' on Sun TV in Chennai. Career He is a popular ...

as fake priest 2 * Minnal Deepa as Madhavi - Shankar's girlfriend * Vijay Jasper as Shahnawaz Peer Baba * Boys Rajan as School Head Master

Soundtrack

The film's

original soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of ...

has been composed by

S. Thaman Ghantasala Sai Srinivas Thaman (born 16 November 1983), known professionally as Thaman S, earlier as S S Thaman, is an Indian music composer, professional drummer, and playback singer who predominantly works in Telugu films and Tamil films. Th ...

Reception

Critical response

The film received mixed reviews from critics.

Rediff Rediff.com (stylized as ''rediff.com'') is an Indian news, information, entertainment and shopping web portal. It was founded in 1996. It is headquartered in Mumbai, with offices in Bangalore, New Delhi and New York City. , it had more than 300 e ...

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". 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". Sify wrote:"On the whole, Kanchana is an entertaining affair and can be watched once".

Box office

According to ''

Sify Sify Technologies Limited (formerly Satyam Infoway) is an Indian information and communications technology company providing end-to-end ICT solutions including telecom services, data center services, cloud & managed services, transformation in ...

'', ''Kanchana'' emerged 2011's most successful Tamil film based on

return on investment Return on investment (ROI) or return on costs (ROC) is a ratio between net income (over a period) and investment (costs resulting from an investment of some resources at a point in time). A high ROI means the investment's gains compare favourably ...

. The film, made on a budget of and marketed for , had its Telugu dubbing rights sold to

Bellamkonda Suresh Bellamkonda Suresh is an Indian film producer in the Telugu film industry. Biography Bellamkonda Suresh is married to Bellamkonda Padmavathi and has two sons named Bellamkonda Sai Sreenivas and Bellamkonda Ganesh Babu. Sreenivas made his deb ...

for . The film grossed around share from Tamil Nadu alone at the end of its run.

Accolades

;

Tamil Nadu State Film Awards Tamil Nadu State Film Awards were given for excellence in Tamil cinema in India. They were given annually to honour the best talents and provide encouragement and incentive to the South Indian film industry by the Government of Tamil Nadu. The aw ...

;* Best Choreographer -

;

Vijay Awards The Vijay Awards are presented by the Tamil television channel STAR Vijay to honour excellence in Tamil cinema. It has been given annually since 2006, with the latest—the 10th edition—of the award-giving ceremony having been held in ...

* Best Supporting Actor -

* Best Female Comedian -

;

1st South Indian International Movie Awards The 1st South Indian International Movie Awards were presented on June 22, 2012, in Dubai, UAE, to honour the best cinematic achievements of the South Indian film industry in the year 2011. Producing films in four Dravidian languages of South Ind ...

* Best Actor in a Supporting Role -

Sequel and remakes

In early 2012, sources claimed that

was planning to make a third part of ''Muni''. 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 ''Kanchana 2'' (marketed as ''Muni 3: Kanchana 2'') is a 2015 Indian Tamil-language horror comedy film written, produced and directed by Raghava Lawrence, who enacted dual roles in it. It is the third installment in the Muni (film series). The f ...

'' was released on 17 April 2015 and fourth installment ''

Kanchana 3 ''Kanchana 3'' (marketed as ''Muni 4: Kanchana 3'') is a 2019 Indian Tamil language action- comedy horror film co-produced, written and directed by Raghava Lawrence. The film stars Raghava Lawrence in a dual role with Oviya, Vedhika, Nikki Tam ...

'' was released on 19 April 2019 both were commercial success at the

box office A box office or ticket office is a place where ticket (admission), tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through a hole in a wall or window, or at a Wicket gate, wicke ...

Rama Narayanan Rama Narayanan (3 April 1949 – 22 June 2014) was an Indian film director and producer. In the 1980s, he was known as a director who specialized in shooting commercial films in which animals played vital roles, while in the 1990s, several of h ...

, who distributed the Tamil version directed the Kannada remake of the film titled '' Kalpana'' with

Upendra Upendra (Devanagari: उपेन्द्र) is an Indian masculine given name. The meaning of the Sanskrit word ' is "younger brother of Indra" and refers to either Krishna or Vishnu, who as a son of Aditi (or in the Vamana avatar) was born subs ...

playing lead role and Sai Kumar playing the transgender role and

reprising her role from the original film. It was released in September 2012. In the 2016 Sri Lankan remake, ''

,'' directed by Donald Jayantha,

Ranjan Ramanayake Sadda Vidda Rajapakse Palanga Pathira Ambakumarage Ranjan Leo Sylvester Alphonsu (born 11 March 1963) (රන්ජන් රාමනායක), popularly known as Ranjan Ramanayake, is a former Sri Lankan politician, actor, film director, si ...

played the role initially portrayed by

Sarath Kumar Sarathkumar Ramanathan (born 14 July 1954) is an Indian actor, politician, filmmaker, and singer. He has acted in more than 130 Tamil language, Tamil, Telugu language, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. He has won two Tamil Nadu State Film A ...

as Kanchana. It was unofficially remade as ''

Tar Tay Gyi ''Tar Tay Gyi'' ( my, တာတေကြီး), is a 2017 Burmese comedy horror film starring Nay Toe and Shwe Thamee. The film produced by Lu Swan Kaung Production premiered in Myanmar on November 24, 2017. The film is an unofficial remake of ...

'' (2017) in Myanmar. In 2017, the Bangladeshi remake of the film released titled ''Mayabini'' starring

Symon Sadik Symon Sadik (born 30 August 1985) is a Bangladeshi film actor, assistant director, lyricist, model and politician. His films are predominantly in Dhallywood cinema. He is the current Assistant General Secretary of the Bangladesh Film Artists' ...

and

Airin Sultana Airin Sultana ( bn, আইরিন সুলতানা ) is a Bangladeshi actress and model. She started her media career after winning the Best Smile Award in the 2008 Pantene Pantene () is a brand of hair care products owned by Procter ...

. Lawrence himself directed the Hindi remake titled ''

'' starring

Akshay Kumar Rajiv Hari Om Bhatia (born 9 September 1967), known professionally as Akshay Kumar (), is an Indian-born naturalised Canadian Quote: "(Former prime minister Stephen) Harper campaigned in 2011 alongside one of Modi's biggest celebrity backer ...

and

Kiara Advani Alia Advani (born 31 July 1991), known professionally as Kiara Advani (), is an Indian actress who works in Hindi and Telugu language films. After making her acting debut in the comedy film '' Fugly'' (2014), she played MS Dhoni's wife in th ...

. It released on the online streaming service

Disney+ Hotstar The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

on 9 November 2020.

Legacy

The song "Sangili Bungili Kadhava Thora" inspired a 2017 film of same name starring

Jiiva Amar Choudary (born 4 January 1984), known professionally as Jiiva, is an Indian actor and film producer who works mainly in Tamil cinema and a few Hindi films. He is the youngest son of film producer R. B. Choudary. He began his career as a ch ...

which was also based on the genre of horror-comedy.

References

External links

*
Kanchana: Muni 2
on {{Raghava Lawrence 2011 films Films about trans women Indian sequel films Indian comedy horror films LGBT-related comedy horror films Tamil films remade in other languages Indian films about revenge 2010s Tamil-language films Films scored by Thaman S 2011 comedy horror films 2011 masala films Indian LGBT-related films 2011 LGBT-related films