Muni (film series)
| Muni series | |
|---|---|
|
Series logo | |
| Directed by | Raghava Lawrence |
| Produced by |
Saran (Muni) Raghava Lawrence (Kanchana) Bellamkonda Suresh (Kanchana 2) |
| Written by |
Raghava Lawrence (Kanchana, Kanchana 2) Ramesh Khanna (Muni) (Dialogues) |
| Screenplay by | Raghava Lawrence |
| Story by | Raghava Lawrence |
| Starring | Raghava Lawrence |
| Music by |
Bharadwaj (Muni) S. Thaman (Kanchana, Kanchana 2) Leon James (Kanchana 2) C.Sathya (Kanchana 2) Ashwamithra (Kanchana 2) |
| Cinematography |
K. V. Guhan (Muni) Vetri (Kanchana) Rajavel Olhiveeran (Kanchana 2) |
| Edited by |
Suresh Urs (Muni) Kishore Te. (Kanchana, Kanchana 2) |
Production company |
Gemini Productions (Muni) Raghavendra Productions (Kanchana, Kanchana 2) |
| Distributed by |
Gemini Productions (Muni) Sri Thenandal Films (Kanchana) Sun Pictures (Kanchana 2) |
Release dates |
1: 9 March 2007 2 : 22 July 2011 3 : 17 April 2015 |
| Country | India |
| Language | Tamil |
Muni is a series of Indian Tamil comedy horror films 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 installment of the franchise titled Kanchana 2 (2015). All films had a massive success in the box office as it continued a trend of the comedy-horror genre in Tamil cinema that began with Chandramukhi (2005).
All the three films revolves around the same plot of a coward who gets possessed by the ghosts to take revenge on the people who killed them, rest of the films shows how he takes revenge. Raghava Lawrence and Kovai Sarala are the only actors to appear in every installment of the series. Manobala, Mayilsamy and Sriman who were part of the second film appeared in the third film portraying different characters.
Basis for all films
All movies are actually not connected with each other, instead showing another episode in the life of Ganesh/Raghava (Raghava Lawrence). He is usually terrified of ghosts. He always comes back home after 6pm. When somebody or something does scare him at home, he immediately jumps on his mum's (Kovai Sarala) hip. He always goes to sleep and goes to the bathroom with this mum as well. When he does go to sleep, he has a set up. He puts slippers and broomsticks around his bed to protect him from ghosts. He even puts slippers underneath the photo of his dead father (Vinu Chakravarthy), in case he comes in form of a ghost and attacks him. A grown man doing this is why there is a lot of laughs in the cinema.
He has different love interests in each movie with funny parts of him trying to woo them. Soon, they get together. They usually have not much scope in the movie other than that, except for Kanchana 2. The love interest (Taapsee) is also possessed by a ghost and both her and Ganesh/Raghava act weird.
Ganesh/Raghava normally goes to a place where there is a ghost. For example, in Muni they move into a new house, in Muni 2: Kanchana it's a field where he plays cricket and in Kanchana 2 it is an abandoned house for a TV show about ghosts.
Later, it roams around their home for a bit, causing more comedy bits. Then, suddenly it goes inside Ganesh/Raghava causing him to act weird and freaking out people around him. Then his family arranges a ghost expert to get the ghost out of him. This is where the ghost tells them who they are. Normally, they are innocent people who have been killed for no reason and want to take revenge. Ganesh/Raghava feels sorry for the ghost and lets it use his body to take revenge. Eventually the ghost does take revenge, with a few obstacles. Because Ganesh/Raghava helped the ghost, they are ready to protect him if he is put in danger.
Films
Muni (2007)
Ganesh (Raghava Lawrence) who is a coward stays in a new house with his family where the ghost of Muniyandi (Rajkiran) has been hovering. Muni was a poor and kind-hearted man who was used by his friend Dhandapani for his advantage. Dhandapani cheats Muni and gets him and his daughter killed. Rest of the film shows Ganesh being possessed by him and taking revenge.[1]
Muni 2:Kanchana (2011)
Raghava (Raghava Lawrence) who fears to venture outside during evening gets possessed by a transgender called Kanchana (Sarathkumar) to take revenge on a minister who killed her for land-grabbing.[2]
Kanchana 2 (2015)
Raghava is a cinematographer for a TV channel and he loves Taapsee who wants to shoot a fake ghost-haunted house so that the TRP rating will increase. To their misfortune, they actually get haunted by not one but five ghosts. Now again the director has reused the Muni template here, as the ghosts want to take revenge against someone who ruined their life and dreams.[3]
Cast
Muni
- Raghava Lawrence as Ganesh
- Rajkiran as Muniyandi
- Vedhicka as Priya Ganesh
- Vinu Chakravarthy as Ganesh's father
- Kovai Sarala as Ganesh's mother
- Kadhal Dhandapani as Maraka Dhandapani
- Rahul Dev as a contract killer
- Nassar as a priest
Muni 2: Kanchana
- Raghava Lawrence as Raghava
- R. Sarathkumar as Kanchana
- Lakshmi Rai as Priya
- Sriman as Raghava's brother
- Devan as MLA Shankar
- Babu Antony as Bhai
- Kovai Sarala as Raghava´s mother
- Devadarshini as Kamakshi
- Manobala as fake priest 1
- Mayilsamy as fake priest 2
Kanchana 2
- Raghava Lawrence as Raghava and Motta Shiva (dual role)
- Nithya Menen as Ganga
- Taapsee Pannu as Nandini
- Kovai Sarala as Raghava's mother
- Renuka as Nandini's sister-in-law
- Jayaprakash as Marudhu
- Rajendran as Marudhu's henchman
- Suhasini Maniratnam as Green TV Head
- Sriman as Dr. Prasad
- Mayilsamy as Watchman
- Manobala as Arnold
- Jangiri Madhumitha as Aishwarya
- Pooja Ramachandran as Pooja
- Pandu as Dr. Pandurangan
Recurring cast and characters
| Character | Film | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Muni (2007) |
Muni 2: Kanchana (2011) |
Muni 3: Kanchana 2 (2015) | |
| Ganesh / Raghava | Raghava Lawrence | ||
| Mother | Kovai Sarala | ||
| Father | Vinu Chakravarthy | ||
| Ghost | Rajkiran | Sarath Kumar | Raghava Lawrence, Nithya Menen |
| Love Interest | Vedhicka | Lakshmi Rai | Taapsee |
| Villain | Kadhal Dhandapani | Devan | Jayaprakash |
Crew
| Occupation | Film | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Muni (2007) |
Muni 2: Kanchana (2011) |
Kanchana 2 (2015) | |
| Director | Raghava Lawrence | ||
| Producer(s) | Saran | Raghava Lawrence | Bellamkonda Suresh |
| Writer(s) | Raghava Lawrence | ||
| Composer(s) | Bharadwaj | S. Thaman | S. Thaman C. Sathya Aswamithra Leon James |
| Director of photography | K. V. Guhan | Vetri | Rajavel Oliveeran, R. B. Gurudev |
| Editor(s) | Suresh Urs | Kishore Te. | |
Legacy
Along with Chandramukhi (2005), Muni became a trendsetter for horror comedy films. The success of the film inspired several other horror comedy films like Aranmanai (2014) and Darling (2015).[4][5][6]
References
- ↑ http://www.sify.com/movies/muni-review-tamil-pclwmDegajaaa.html
- ↑ http://behindwoods.com/tamil-movie-reviews/reviews-2/jul-11-04/kanchana-review.html
- ↑ http://www.sify.com/movies/kanchana-2-review-tamil-perq6Nfaabgei.html
- ↑ "Aranmanai follows Chandramukhi and Kanchana". Behindwoods. 22 September 2014. Archived from the original on 10 May 2015. Retrieved 10 May 2015.
- ↑ K. Jeshi (8 May 2015). "The funny thing about horror". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 10 May 2015. Retrieved 10 May 2015.
- ↑ Srinivasan, Sudhir (16 January 2015). "Darling: A familiar ghost serves as humour fodder, again". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 10 May 2015. Retrieved 10 May 2015.