Kanam – Movie Review

What’s it about!
Tulasi (Sai Pallavi) is a doctor and her husband is civil engineer Krishna (Naga Shaurya). The young couple move into an apartment after their wedding. Before their wedding, they were in a love relationship and Tulasi had an abortion and this caused huge emotional burden on her. Krishna’s father, Tulasi’s mother and her uncle …who forced Tulasi to go for abortion five years back die in strange manner. Are their deaths natural? Or done by super natural figure?
 
Analysis:
 
‘Kanam’ is a thriller with supernatural elements but it is not typical horror movie. The film deals with the topic of abortion and stillborn baby haunting the lead actress. When Tulasi gets pregnant during her college period at the age of nineteen, her mother and others force her to abort the child much to the against of her wishes. So, even after getting her same lover five years later, she can’t forget her stillborn. She names her Diya and keeps sketching her images (without a face) in her scrapbook. All these scenes happen in the very beginning of the story (in first 30 minutes). The film is not about ghost possessing a person nor is it about psychological issues. It is about creating a tension as all those who are involved in the first incident getting killed one by one. Will everyone including Tulasi die? The director tries to create this tension with his little plotline.
 
 He has treated the film differently from such thrillers. He left out the customary romantic thread on the lead pair, no duets or dream songs either. The deaths are also not suspenseful, who is behind the killings is also revealed. Still, he builds interest to some extent in the first hour. Later it turns monotonous, goes in straight line manner with no highs.
 
The basic idea is neat but the film suffers with lack of clarity on the director’s part whether to make it an emotional drama or a thriller or message-oriented movie. Even the tension is not effective. However, it is watchable thanks to Sai Pallavi who holds many moments.
 
The making of the film is more like short film, just moving from one location (apartment) to another (hospital, police station, construction site) with stock shots. The second half’s runtime is just 35 minutes.
 
As far as performances concerned, Sai Pallavi and baby Veronica as Diya impress us. Sai Pallavi as young mother brings depth despite underwritten character. Veronica who doesn’t speak in the entire movie has given best performance. She is also cute. Hero Naga Shaurya has a passive character and he doesn’t put any efforts to make it any brighter. Rest of the actors don’t make much impression.
 
On technical front, music director leaves his mark in background score. Rest of the technicians have come up with standard work. Director Vijay shows his mark in first hour but his narration and writing is unconvincing in the later portions.
 
Bottom-line: Though ‘Kanam’ deals with a point that is fairly novel in Indian cinema, it suffers from lack of rousing elements and gripping sequences. It is plain thriller cum message oriented movie with hardly any engaging moments.