''Kanaa'' () is a 2018 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, nativ ...

-language

sports drama A sports film is a film genre in which any particular sport plays a prominent role in the film's plot or acts as its central theme. It is a production in which a sport, sporting event, athlete (and their sport), or follower of sport (and the spor ...

film starring

Sathyaraj Rangaraj Subbiah (born 3 October 1954), professionally known as Sathyaraj, is an Indian actor, producer, director and a media personality who has predominantly appeares in Tamil cinema and Telugu cinema, Telugu Cinema. His 240 films also includ ...

Aishwarya Rajesh Aishwarya Rajesh (born 10 January 1990) is an Indian actress who works primarily in Tamil films, alongside Telugu and Malayalam films. She is a recipient of four SIIMA Awards, one Filmfare Award South and one Tamil Nadu State Film Award. Aish ...

Sivakarthikeyan Sivakarthikeyan (born 17 February 1985), also referred to as SK, is an Indian actor, singer, film producer, lyricist, and television presenter, who works predominantly in Tamil films. He has also won a Tamil Nadu State Film Award, four Edison A ...

, and Darshan. The film is written and directed by

Arunraja Kamaraj Arunraja Kamaraj is a singer, lyricist, actor, director in Tamil-language films. He is known for his works as lyricist in films such as '' Jigarthanda'', '' Theri'', ''Pencil'' and ''Kabali''. He also debuted as an actor in '' Raja Rani'' and a ...

, who is directing for the first time. It was released theatrically on 21 December 2018. The film has music composed by Dhibu Ninan Thomas, cinematography by Dinesh B. Krishnan, edited by

Ruben Reuben or Reuven is a Biblical male first name from Hebrew רְאוּבֵן (Re'uven), meaning "behold, a son". In the Bible, Reuben was the firstborn son of Jacob. Variants include Rúben in European Portuguese; Rubens in Brazilian Portuguese ...

and produced by Sivakarthikeyan in his newly established

Sivakarthikeyan Productions Sivakarthikeyan (born 17 February 1985), also referred to as SK, is an Indian actor, singer, film producer, lyricist, and television presenter, who works predominantly in Tamil films. He has also won a Tamil Nadu State Film Award, four Edison A ...

banner. It was remade in

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 ...

as '' Kousalya Krishnamurthy'', with Aishwarya and Sivakarthikeyan reprising their roles.

Plot

Kousalya Murugesan aka Kowsi is the daughter of Murugesan, a

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer mig ...

Kulithalai Kulithalai () is a municipality Karur district & Sub-urb of Tiruchirapalli City in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The recorded history of Kulithalai is known from Cheras, followed by medieval Chola period of the 9th century and has been rule ...

Karur Karur () is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Karur is the administrative headquarters of Karur district. It is located on the banks of River Amaravathi, Kaveri and Noyyal. Karur is well known for the export of Home Textile products to ...

. She aspires to become an international cricketer so she can put a smile on her cricket-loving father's face by helping the country win. The reason for this being portrayed in the initial scenes where Murugesan is very eager to see India's matches in the

2007 Cricket World Cup The 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup was the ninth Cricket World Cup, a One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament that took place in the West Indies from 13 March to 28 April 2007. There were a total of 51 matches played, three fewer than at the ...

. However, he gets heartbroken on seeing India's crashing defeat to Sri Lanka in the group stages, which sees India getting subsequently knocked out. Murugesan controls his feelings before his daughter, but she witnesses him crying and being heartbroken throughout the whole night. Hence, this aspires a 11-year old Kowsi, to take up cricket seriously, represent her country, and win the world cup one day for her father's sake. Kowsi joins the local cricket team in the village when she is 14, who were mostly her school seniors. Kowsi's off-spin

bowling Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), though ...

technique gets her

wickets In cricket, the term wicket has several meanings: * It is one of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at either end of the pitch. The fielding team's players can hit the wicket with the ball in a number of ways to get a batsman out. * ...

, and everyone starts appreciating her talent. At the same time, she also earns the wrath of many villagers as she plays cricket with boys wearing t-shirts and trousers, which is portrayed to be non-traditional. However, Murugesan does not care for this and he supports his daughter. Kowsi decides to appear for the Tamil Nadu team selection test, but she gets rejected in her first attempt. She does not give up and tries again where she succeeds and starts playing in Tamil Nadu women's team. Her hard work pays off, and she is selected in

Indian women's cricket team The India women's national cricket team, also known as Team India or Women in Blue, represents India in women's international cricket. It is governed by Board of Control for Cricket in India India made its Test debut in 1976, against the West ...

. Kowsi goes to

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

to get trained in a national cricket academy. Meanwhile, Murugesan faces a tough time with agriculture, as he is unable to repay the debt of Rs. 4 lakhs from a bank, resulting in a rift created between Murugesan and the bank manager. Kowsi faces a hard time in cricket academy due to internal politics where senior players ill-treating her as she cannot speak

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 ...

. The team's coach also hates Kowsi and demotivates her to a large extent. However, the coach retires, and there comes a new coach named Nelson Dilipkumar. Nelson, who was an ex-Indian cricketer, had to retire after his very first International Match as he sustained a terrible eye injury, leaving him partially blinded in the left eye. Nelson develops the team's spirit and gets the players ready for the upcoming T20 world cup. Nelson spots Kowsi's spin bowling capabilities and trains her in the right path. Nelson also locks horns with the team selection committee and ensures that Kowsi is present in the world cup squad. However, Nelson decides to rest Kowsi for the league matches, which makes her feel sad. However, Nelson reveals his strategy, that the intention was to hide Kowsi's talent from the opponents, and her bowling would be a surprise element in the semifinals. Kowsi is selected in the playing eleven during the semifinal match against the strongest team,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. On that day, Murugesan's house is taken away from the bank manager for not repaying the debt. Kowsi hears this and feels bad that she is not with her father. However, Kowsi is motivated by Nelson to make her father proud by playing well in the semifinals. During the match, Kowsi bowls a hat trick and also hits a six while batting, resulting in a tie. During super over, Kowsi again bowls well, leading to India's win. Kowsi is appreciated for her bowling efforts and is awarded Rs. 5 lakhs for "Woman of the Match" award. Receiving the award, Kowsi gives an emotional speech describing the situation of her father and other farmers in the country. Murugesan feels very proud of seeing Kowsi. In the closing credits, it is shown that Indian women won the T20 final against West Indies women and Kowsi was appreciated by the

Tamil Nadu Government Government of Tamil Nadu is the subnational government for the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is seated at Fort St George, Chennai. The legislature of Tamil Nadu was bicameral until 1986, when it was replaced by a unicameral legislature, like ...

for her superb bowling tactics.

Cast

as Murugesan *

as Kousalya Murugesan *

as Nelson Dilipkumar * Darshan as Murali Krishna *

Rama Rama (; ), Ram, Raman or Ramar, also known as Ramachandra (; , ), is a major deity in Hinduism. He is the seventh and one of the most popular '' avatars'' of Vishnu. In Rama-centric traditions of Hinduism, he is considered the Supreme Bein ...

as Savithri, Kousalya's mother *

Ilavarasu Ilavarasu is an Indian cinematographer and actor, who works in the Tamil film industry. He started his career as a cinematographer and worked for 13 films, winning a Tamil Nadu State Film Award for one of them. He, however, became better known ...

as Thangarasu *

Ramdoss Ramdoss, better known as Munishkanth, is an Indian actor who appears in Tamil language films. He had notable roles in films, including ''Mundasupatti'' (2014), ''Maanagaram'' (2017), ''Maragadha Naanayam'' (2017) and ''Raatchasan'' (2018). Ca ...

as Inspector Patchamuthu *

Kali Prasad Mukherjee Kali Prasad Mukherjee (born 20 November 1966) is an Indian film and television actor who is best known for playing supporting roles in Bollywood films and Indian soap opera Indian television drama (in Indian English Indian serials) are tel ...

as Patel *

Namo Narayana Namo Narayana is an Indian actor who has worked in Tamil films. He made a breakthrough as an actor with his performances in ''Naadodigal'' (2009) and ''Komban'' (2015). Career Narayana was a software engineer before he chose to star in a suppor ...

as Politician * Balaji Venugopal as Bank Manager * Blade Shankar as School P. E. T. Master * Keerthika as Young Kousalya * Baby Monika as Young Kousalya * Hello Kandasamy as Kandasamy * Seenu Vasan as Old Bank Manager * Sethupathy as Loan Officer * Savari Muthu as Sachin * Antony Bhagyaraj as Tendulkar * Ashok Kumar as Anand * Guna as Peter * Sathya NJ as Sathya * Aruvi Balaji as Nambi * Pradeep Durairaj as Sekar * Sivamaaran as Prakash * Fathima Samreen * Natasha Parashar as Natasha Parashar * Nirali Oza as Gayathri Dixit * Shyla Alam as Anjali Sharma * Sushree Pradhan as Deepika Patel * Ramya Justin as Ramya * Sajana Sajeevan as Sajana

Production

This project was officially launched in February 2018, and actor

is making his debut as the producer of the venture, under his newly established SK Productions banner, with actors

and

joining the cast, and debut actor Darshan was signed to play the male lead role. Dhibu Ninan Thomas, who earlier composed for

Maragadha Naanayam ''Maragadha Naanayam'' () is a 2017 Indian Tamil-language fantasy comedy film written and directed by ARK Saravan in his directorial debut. The film stars Aadhi and Nikki Galrani while Anandaraj, Munishkanth, Daniel Annie Pope, Mime Gopi, and Ko ...

was selected as the music director. Meanwhile, Dinesh Krishnan,

, and Lalgudi N Ilayaraja was signed as a cinematographer, editor and art director for this film.This film is shot in Tiruchirapalli(Trichy, lalgudi,kulithalai),etc. It was announced that the film would be released on December 21.

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack is composed by

Dhibu Ninan Thomas Dhibu Ninan Thomas is an Indian film music composer and producer who predominantly works in Tamil cinema. He did his bachelor of engineering in electronics from JJ Engineering College in Trichy. Early life Dhibu Ninan Thomas was a music enthu ...

, who happens to be classmates with

and

on their college days. The album features five songs, of which the song "Vaayadi Petha Pulla" is sung by

and his daughter Aaradhana, alongside

Vaikom Vijayalakshmi Vaikom Vijayalakshmi (born 7 October 1981) is an Indian playback singer from Kerala, India. She is an expert in a rare musical instrument called Gayatriveena. She won special jury mention for her much appreciated work in the 2013 film '' Cellul ...

as well. The audio rights of the film are secured by Sony Music India.

Release & Reception

The movie has finally released on December 21, 2018 to highly positive reviews. M Suganth from ''

Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English language, English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, t ...

'' calls the movie a "crowd-pleasing sports movie that also doubles up as a message movie on farmers and their issues", giving the film a 3.5/5 rating. The film was also dubbed and released in Hindi as ''Not Out'' on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

by Goldmines Telefilms in 2021.

Remake

This film was remade in Telugu as '' Kousalya Krishnamurthy'' with Aishwarya Rajesh and Sivakarthikeyan reprising their roles from the original and

Rajendra Prasad Rajendra Prasad (3 December 1884 – 28 February 1963) was an Indian politician, lawyer, Indian independence activist, journalist & scholar who served as the first president of Republic of India from 1950 to 1962. He joined the Indian Nationa ...

playing Sathyaraj's role.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=8458718 2010s Tamil-language films 2018 films Films set in Tamil Nadu Indian sports drama films 2010s sports drama films Films about cricket in India Films about social issues in India Films about women in India Films about women's sports Films shot in Tamil Nadu Films set in Karnataka Indian feminist films 2010s coming-of-age films Indian nonlinear narrative films Fictional portrayals of the Tamil Nadu Police Tamil films remade in other languages 2018 directorial debut films 2018 drama films