Kanchana 3 is a 2019 Indian Tamil language action-comedy horror film co-produced, written and directed by Raghava Lawrence. The film stars Raghava Lawrence in a dual role with Oviya, Vedhika, Nikki Tamboli and Ri Djavi Alexandra. While Kovai Sarala, Soori, Tarun Arora, and Kabir Duhan Singh play supporting roles. Produced by Sun Pictures, the fourth installment in the MuniCinematic Universe and third installment in Kanchana series, the film began production during October 2018 and released on April 19, 2019 to mixed reviews. Later, the film was dubbed in Hindi as K3: Kaali Ka Karishma.
Plot
The ghost-fearing Raghava and his happy family consisting of his mother, brother, sister in law, and their daughter set out to Coimbatore for a family function, and there, the whole family, including Raghava's female cousins Priya, Kavya, and Divya, witness strange and scary incidents at their grandparents' house, as well as Raghava getting possessed. The subsequent events return to another character named Kaali. Kaali is a social worker who runs an ashram which gives shelter and feeds poor people. He has also contributed to the studies of poor youths. One day, a politician named Bhavani, the brother of another politician, Shankar, enters in Kaali's ashram. He asks to keep a sum of 100 crores in his ashram, which is black money and return 80 crores and keep 20 crores as a source of funding to his ashram. When Kaali refuses, he sends his men to kill Kaali's handicap innocents, which angers Kaali. He then sets out to kill Bhavani's henchmen and finally him. When Bhavani is murdered, Shankar is angered and devises a plan to kill Kaali. When Rosie and Kaali take a ride on a bike, Shankar appoints a lorry and crushes them both. Rosie dies there, and Kaali dies watching the video of his ashram and his supporters getting destroyed. The possessed Raghava sets out to kill Shankar. However, to his surprise, Shankar had already arranged the exorcists to crush Kaali. However, surpassing them, he kills Shankar and avenges his death. In the end credits, it is shown that Kaali and Rosie join hands together and walk.
Cast
Raghava Lawrence in a dual role as Raghava and Kaali
Following the success of Kanchana 2, Raghava Lawrence confirmed that more films in the horror comedy series would continue to be made. In August 2015, he announced a film titled Naaga, which he would direct himself, and the film was widely reported to be the fourth film in the Muni series. He subsequently moved on to work on two other films, Motta Shiva Ketta Shiva and Shivalinga. Lawrence revived the project in August 2017 and revealed he was finishing the script. The regular supporting cast of Kovai Sarala, Manobala, Sriman and Devadarshini were retained. Sun Pictures, who had recently produced who had previously produced Enthiran, agreed to produce their film, marking their second production. In late September, the following actresses were added to the project: Oviya, following her popularity on the Tamil reality showBigg Boss, Vedhika from the first film, and newcomer Nikki Tamboli. The shoot of the film began in Chennai during the first week of October 2017. Nivetha Joseph was the costume designer for this film. The movie was released on 19 April 2019.
Music
Raghava Lawrence further inked a deal with DooPaaDoo.com which is owned by lyricist Madhan Karky. It was revealed that the film will have songs from six independent music directors throughout the DooPaaDoo.com platform, with 2 of film's songs are composed by singer Saravedi Saran, while each one song will be composed by Sekar Sai Bharath, Jessie Samuel, Bharath Madhusuthanan and the duo of Raj Thillaiyampalam-Kapilan Kugavel. The background music was composed by Thaman, who earlier composed for director's previous and Kanchana 2 film.
Reception
The film was an average grosser at box office. The film received positive reviews from Wetalkiess. The dubbed Kannada version titled Kanchana 3 was panned by critics. Film Companion South wrote, "In theory, I am a fan of mixing humour and horror. I just wish they worked more on the writing. I can live with the non-existent craft in these films, but is it too much to ask a horror-comedy to have some quality horror and some quality comedy?"
