Kanchana 2

Plot

The film begins with a couple visiting a friend's home for dinner. To their surprise, the hosts are not home and the place is haunted. In the present, Raghava (Raghava Lawrence) is a cameraman for the channel Green TV where his girlfriend Nandini (Tapsee Pannu) also works. When Green TV drops down to second position in the ratings, Nandini advises to shoot a horror program to bring their channel back to the first position. After the board members agree on this plan, Nandini decides on a location with a house with an intense haunted look, without knowing the fact that it is actually haunted. She sets out with Raghava, his watchman Mayil (Mayilsamy), Dr. Prasad (Sriman) and the anchor Pooja (Pooja Ramachandran) to complete the task.

While shooting on a nearby beach, Nandini discovers a Thali, and after the discovery, mysterious events start taking place. So, Nandini decides to visit a priest. The priest discovers that the Thali is actually haunted, lets Nandini out of his room and returns the Thali to the spirit. But Nandini doesn't seem to believe it and the priest challenges her to check the place where she had taken it from. After Nandini and Pooja disturb the Thali for a second time, it doesn't leave them. She rushes to the priest and he helps her. As instructed by him, she prepares a coffin and a groomed woman's corpse which has the Thali. They move to a distance and shoot to see that the coffin literally breaks open and the dead woman is dragged by the ghost. All the members run away out of fear and Raghava collapses. The priest who helps Nandini is also killed by the ghost. Nandini tries to wake Raghava up but is too late as she gets possessed by the ghost of Ganga.

Raghava and Nandini move into another house where the haunted Nandini is planning something and to their surprise Raghava's mother and Nandini's sister-in-law also come to stay there. Several changes occur in Nandini which only Raghava notices at first; she starts smoking at night and even physically assaults Raghava. Soon, all realize that she is possessed. Nandini (Now possessed as Ganga), influences Shiva's ghost to be sent into Raghava. When Raghava's mother and Nandini's sister-in-law return, they are beaten up, run to a church and learn about Shiva (also Raghava Lawrence) and Ganga (Nithya Menen). Ganga is a handicap but Shiva loves her very much. But Marudhu (Jayaprakash) killed and buried them when Ganga refused to marry his insane son Shankar. Before dying, however, Shiva has killed Shankar. When Raghava (possessed as Shiva) kills Marudhu's henchman, he comes to know that a spirit killed him. He gets a tantric and revives his dead son to kill Shiva and Ganga. Shiva battles Shankar and eventually defeats him. Ganga takes her revenge by killing Marudhu. Shiva returns Raghava safely to his family and promises to come back whenever they needed him; the story of Shiva and Ganga restores Green TV to the first position.

Production

Raghava Lawrence began work on the third installment in the Muni franchise in 2012, then titled Muni 3: Ganga. He said that he had two different storylines for the sequel. Taapsee Pannu was roped in to play the female lead. Anjali was said to have been signed for the title role of Ganga, but she was later replaced by Nithya Menen. Lawrence introduced his brother Elvin in the film, who danced in a music video. Lawrence was reported to be appearing in six different looks in the film. Pooja Ramachandran was also roped in and was said to be playing the role of an anchor. In October 2013, Lawrence injured himself while filming and the making of the film was stopped for over three months. The film was in production for over two years.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack features five songs composed by C. Sathya, S. Thaman, Ashwamithra and debutant Leon James, with the latter contributing two songs to the album.

Release

The film was released on 17 April 2015 in around 750 screens worldwide alongside Mani Ratnam's O Kadhal Kanmani. The Telugu version was released later on 1 May 2015 in around 550 screens.

Critical reception

Kanchana 2 opened to positive reviews from critics.

The Times of India gave 3 stars out of 5 and wrote, "The comedy is broad and low-brow, banking on gay humour and the reactions of the characters when they are spooked by the presence of the ghost. It becomes too childish at times but you laugh nevertheless...the film does what it promises — we chuckle, cower, cry and at times, cringe". Behindwoods gave the film 2.75 out of 5 stars and said, "Looks like Lawrence has mastered the Genre, so well that he knows how to keep the audience at the edge of their seats. His creative imagination has made this film different from the usual horror comedy films". Rediff rated the film 2.5 on 5, calling it "an enjoyable film" and wrote, "The plot may be out of date and the comedy absurd, but the antics of the familiar characters and their enthusiasm make you laugh despite yourself". Sify wrote, "Kanchana 2 is no different from Lawrence's earlier horror comedies...The formula is the same – mix crass comedy with lots of horror, dead person's spirit getting into hero/heroine body, slapstick humour, glamour, melodrama, ladies sentiments, fight scenes...Add five songs, haunted house, scream and wailing sounds, it works".

Indo-Asian News Service gave 2.5 stars out of 5 and wrote, "The movie, which follows a very cliched and dated format of horror template, suffers heavily due to the lack of a good story" and called it "undoubtedly a weak film in the franchise". The Hindu wrote, "The acting isn’t the problem; the predictable story is...Kanchana-3, which is hinted at before the end credits, needs to do better if the franchise has to survive".

Box office

Kanchana 2 grossed approximately ₹120 crore (US$19 million) worldwide.

On its first day, the film grossed ₹5.77 crore (US$900,000) nett in Tamil Nadu alone and around ₹10 crore (US$1.6 million) worldwide. The film had a "phenomenal" opening, earning ₹10.83 crore (US$1.7 million) nett in Tamil Nadu in two days. Kanchana 2 earned ₹17.5 crore (US$2.7 million) nett in Tamil Nadu in its opening weekend. The film netted ₹1.55 crore (US$240,000) in Karnataka, ₹88 lakh (US$140,000) in Kerala and ₹22 lakh (US$34,000) from the rest of India. In Chennai city alone, the film made ₹1.31 crore (US$200,000) in three days.

The film grossed ₹40 crore (US$6.2 million) in Tamil Nadu in ten days. It made ₹51.5 crore (US$8.0 million) from TN, Kerala and Karnataka in fourteen days.

Ganga, the Telugu version collected ₹12.2 crore (US$1.9 million) share in its first week with a gross of ₹19.3 crore (US$3.0 million). The final share was ₹18.65 crore (US$2.9 million), making it the third highest earning dubbed film in AP/Telangana after I and Enthiran.

The film opened with ₹7 lakh (US$11,000) in the United States on a limited release. In UK and Ireland, the film made ₹24 lakh (US$37,000) in the opening weekend. In Malaysia, the film had a very good opening, grossing ₹1.36 crore (US$210,000) in its first three days.

The film was re released in Ernakulam Saritha theatre on 3 June 2016.