Director: Arunraja Kamaraj
Cast: Aishwarya Rajesh, Sathyaraj, Sivakarthikeyan
“Even as far back as when I started acting at 14, I know I’ve never considered failure.” – Jennifer Lawrence
‘Kanaa’ marks the directorial debut of the multi-talented Arunraja Kamaraj. Produced by Sivakarthikeyan, the film stars Aishwarya Rajesh, Sathyaraj and Sivakarthikeyan himself in prominent roles.
Kausalya (aka) Kausi (Aishwarya Rajesh) develops a deep fascination for cricket from a young age, mainly due to her father Murugesan (Sathyaraj) who’s a cricket fanatic (so much so that a bull in his house is named Kapil Dev)! Having seen her father shed tears when India had been prematurely knocked out in the 2007 World Cup, she vows to become a player herself one day and make him proud. The road is obviously not easy, not least because of the stereotypes placed on girls and unwritten rules on what they are apparently supposed to do or not do! Kausi battles through these initial difficult phases, only to realize that professional cricket at the highest level is no child’s play either. All is not well at home too as Murugesan’s agricultural produce fails and he falls under tremendous pressure to take up odd jobs and repay loans. Kausi seems to be the beacon of hope now and whether she succeeds or not could have more than just moral ramifications.
Arunraja Kamaraj does a wonderful job in defining the conflicts at every stage of Kausi’s evolution as a cricketer. We as the audience feel the hardship too and this is a big win for any filmmaker as it makes us root for the protagonist during every sequence. The casting is just perfect and the staging of scenes is as convincing as possible with the available budget. For instance, there is a lengthy sequence towards the end that captures the World Cup semi final game between India and Australia. An immature or exaggerated staging of this could have really hurt the film but the director and his crew have definitely done their homework and pulled it off with aplomb! Aishwarya Rajesh steals the show with a phenomenal performance. Her dedicated preparation for the role is evident and she pulls off the role of Kausi with great confidence and conviction. The ‘romantic’ track in the movie is also totally quirky and written with great novelty. The manner in which the character Murali proposes to Kausi in the end is hilarious and leaves you in splits! Sathyaraj puts in a typically powerful performance and in fact, his story runs almost as a parallel narrative to the main plot. There must also be a special mention for the cinematography and editing as the cricketing sequences, especially the world cup game, have been shot and edited in a way that keeps the audience’s pulse racing.
The whole film is a breath of fresh air and breaks a few stereotypes itself. Though films with female protagonists are not uncommon in Tamil cinema these days, this film does stand out for the sheer ambition and near flawless execution. Arunraja Kamaraj wears many hats in tinsel town. One does hope that he will don the directorial hat more often too in years to come!
Overall rating: 3.5/5
