After the mega success of Veruthe Oru Bharya, depicting the novel story of a housewife overburdened by routine household chores, director Akku Akbar is back with yet another commendable family story Kaanakanmani, starring Jayaram once again in the lead role alongside Padmapriya and Baby Nivedita. This time, the director raises his voice for the rights and justice of unborn children, whose lives were terminated by their parents at hospital tables. The film does not directly preach or argue against abortion, but on the other hand, it tries to interpret things from the victim’s point of view emotionally and ethically! Kaanakanmani is not a tearjerker, but capable of touching the depth of all hearts with its intelligent narration and serious theme.
Kaanakanmani revolves around a happy-go-lucky family comprising Roy (Jayaram), Maya (Padmapriya) and their only daughter Anakha (Baby Nivedita). Roy belongs to a pukka Christian family, while Maya is a Brahmin. The film begins with rib-tickling ‘clashes’ between Roy’s father (Vijaya Raghavan) and Maya’s grandmother (Sukumari) in the name of their differences in caste and religion.
After establishing the characters in the first 30 minutes, the story reveals its true nature by slowly exposing the mysterious behaviour of Anakha. During a small function at her residence, the nine year old girl suddenly goes missing. She is finally found on the edge of a flat on the 30th floor, pretending to commit suicide. However, she is saved in time.
The story takes a major turn when Roy decides to go with family for a holiday abroad. But Anakha has a different plan about the tour; she forces her parents to visit their old house in a remote village instead. Giving full support to his daughter’s choice, Roy decides to spend a few days in his old house to satisfy her. But when they reach the old home, supernatural events begin to happen.
Anakha shows obvious symptoms of being affected by a supernatural entity (a ghost) and threatens her parents with her magic, revealing a flashback story in which Roy and Maya aborted their first child during their early years to avoid financial instability. Roy and Maya slowly realize that their aborted child is the “ghost” behind Anakha’s strange behaviour and ultimately wants to avenge Roy and Maya by killing their sweet Anakha. How Roy and Maya manage to save their child from their “invisible child” forms the rest of the film. Kaanakanmani is a never-told, heartbreaking story of invisible children, being aborted from millions of wombs at hospital tables every day.
Of course, it is a challenging task to make a film dealing with the feelings and thoughts of an intangible character like “invisible child” (aborted child). The potential danger is that in the wake of attempting a story in favour of the unborn victims, the film can become either preachy or boring. Thanks to director Akku Akbar’s skill in blending the elements of horror in the narration, Kaanakanmani has turned out to be a semi-horror thriller, which has a heart in its depth. Horror is one of the plus points of the film.
Performance wise, Kaanakanmani stands on the bedrock of baby Nivedita’s brilliant preformance as Anakha. The amazing thing is that the nine year old
Nivedita could understand and emote the feelings of a child, never-born! Nivedita is the heart-stealer of the entire show. Jayaram and Padmapriya as Nivedita’s parents have done justice to their respective roles. Vijaya Raghavan and Sukumari deserve special mention for evoking some funny moments by depicting the roles of proud grandparents.
Kaanakanmani’s full credit goes to cinematographer Shaji for making the show interesting and thrilling through his amazing camera work. Shyam Dharman’s songs, especially ‘Muthe muthe’ and ‘Penpuvo ponne anpuvo’ are excellent. Having mentioned the strengths, Kaanakanmani does have its weaknesses. The story is predicable and any viewer can easily guess what’s going to happen next! However, predictability is not a major weak point, since Kaanakanmani is all about the impact of a reality. All in all, Akku Akbar’s Kaanakanmani is a strong warning against abortion and is a voice of the voiceless!
Producer Moser Baer Entertainment
Director Akku Akbar
Cast Jayaram, Padma Priya, Baby Nivedita,
Sukumari, Vijaya Raghavan, Nedumudi Venu, Soraj Venjaramudu and others
Camera Shaji
Music Shyam Dharman
Distributor Play House