Skip to main content

Kanaa Review



Cast: Aishwarya Rajesh, Sathyaraj, Siva Karthikeyan
Music: Dhibu Ninan Thomas
Direction: Arunraja Kamaraj

Kanaa (Dream) is a sports drama film about a girl from a village who dreams to play for India. She wants to play because her father cried seeing India losing the match and she wants to make India win eventually make her father happy. There are quite a few sports films in India, so writing a sports film is challenging as protagonist or his/her team will eventually be the winner. Arunraja Kamaraj tries to make this narrative enjoyable with interesting moments.

One of the beautiful moments is how Kousalya Murugesan (played by Aishwarya Rajesh) says how she saw cricket in her father’s face rather than television. And the sadness in his face (after India losing) inspires Kousalya to play cricket. It’s not just her who watches the match on his face; see her mom who just stares at him during the whole match in which her daughter is playing. Another wonderful piece of writing is how the Tamil language is used as an competitive advantage in the match. Kousalya faces the challenge of not knowing Hindi at her cricket camp and I was praying that there shouldn’t be a preachy dialogue on importance of Tamil. I loved the way it was written.

Arunraja Kamaraj intervene the problems of farmers into the narrative of the dream of the girl playing cricket for India. It was not a misfit as Kousalya’s father (played by Sathyaraj) is a farmer and his struggles made the narrative interesting. It was like two parallel persons running towards their dream. Kousalya towards playing for India and Murugesan towards paying his debt back do farming. Though the climax speech of importance of farmer is stagey and seemed like a force fit. The comedy falls flat and barely makes you laugh except one or two scenes.

The cameo of Siva Karthikeyan as Coach Nelson makes the film a little predictable, but nothing short of entertainment. Aishwarya Rajesh is best as a cricketer and Sathyaraj is amazing especially in the scene where he talks to Kousalya, who is telling happy news but he is going through a bad incident. He isn’t crying in that close-up shot but we get that there is something bad happening to him.

Verdict: Enjoyable sports drama

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Mayaanadhi Review

Cast: Tovino Thomas, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Illavarasu Year: 2017 Music: Rex Vijayan Direction: Aashiq Abu It took me hours to come out this film. Mayaanadhi is a type of film that traps you into its world and leaves you enthralled. In the opening sequence we hear Maathan (Tovino Thomas) taking about his future and we see sky as the visual. The future is vast and so far away like the sky. Mayaanadhi is a romantic thriller. The romance of Maathan and Aparna (Aishwarya Lekshmi) is just amazing and used wonderfully to the crime part of the film. Tovino as Maathan not only looks good but also his acting is brilliant. His small facial expressions like getting frustrated for a phone call or while motivating Aparna over call adds value to the character. Aishwarya Lekshmi as Aparna Ravi is also brilliant on screen. I loved the scene where she slaps Maathan, walks away fast, and then gradually slows down till she stops. One of the biggest things that Malayalam cinema doe...

Arjun Reddy Review

Cast: Vijay Deverakonda, Shalini, Rahul Ramakrishna, Music: Radhan Direction: Sandeep Vanga When the film gets over and while you walk out of the theatre have you heard a few people saying “It’s a normal same old story” (No one did for this film). Arjun Reddy is such a film with same old story. Arjun Reddy (played by Vijay Deverakonda, about whom I will talk in a while) is a topper in his medical college and a short tempered guy with zero anger management. He meets a first year girl, Preethi (played by Shalini) and they fall in love. What happens to Arjun after his love failure is what explored in a unique way. So this not a film that you can expect every year. This is a film that has a beautiful narration enthralling you for 3 hours. The initial scenes when Arjun frequently visits Preethi are a little surprising as Preethi never utters a word whenever he visits her. You start thinking what kind of love it is. But the love that Arjun has on Preethi is explained in...

October Review

Cast: Varun Dawan, Banita Sandhu, Gitanjali Rao Music: Shantanu Moitra Written by: Juhi Chaturvedi Direction: Shoojit Sircar Love, one of the trickiest emotion and often showed in a clichéd manner is so refreshing in this film. Juhi Chaturvedi has written a beautiful story about love and with Shoojith Sircar’s elegant direction, October is a heart-warming film. Danish Walia(played by Varun Dawan), called ‘Dan’, is a hotel management internee at a five star hotel.   His co-worker, Shiuli Iyer(played by Banita Sandhu), accidentally falls off from 30 feet height. Shiuli Iyer slips into coma and Dan’s character undergoes a transformation. Dan has temperament issues, while working as internee and later he becomes mature. Varun Dawan has completely transformed into Dan, as I could witness the character than the actor. Banita Sandhu’s performance emote the audience’s emotions. The scenes where she responds are heart-warming. The screenplay is well written and d...