Kanchana 3

Kanchana 3
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Raghava Lawrence
Written by	Raghava Lawrence
Produced by	Kalanithi Maran Raghava Lawrence
Starring	Raghava Lawrence Oviya Vedhika Nikki Tamboli Ri Djavi Alexandra
Cinematography	Vetri Palanisamy Sarvesh Murari
Edited by	Ruben
Music by	Songs: DooPaaDoo Score: S. Thaman
Production companies	Sun Pictures Raghavendra Productions
Distributed by	Sun Pictures
Release date	19 April 2019 (2019-04-19)
Running time	174 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Box office	₹130 crore[1]

Kanchana 3 (marketed as Muni 4: Kanchana 3) is a 2019 Indian Tamil language action-comedy horror film^[2] 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 Muni (film series), the film began production during October 2018 and released on 19 April 2019. Later, the film was dubbed in Hindi as K3: Kaali Ka Karishma.^[3]

A businessman asks his friend to resolve his daughter's problem. His friend asks him to take him to the nearby Lord Narasimha Temple. So the businessman's family takes her to the nearby temple. She breaks the car and runs home. He becomes scared, and they call Russian exorcists to evict the spirit from their daughter. They successfully evict the violent spirit and hammered it into a tree with two metal nail crosses.

Raghava, a ghost-fearing man, lives with his happy family, consisting of his mother, brother, sister-in-law, and niece. They set out for Coimbatore for a family function to celebrate their grandparents' 60th anniversary. On the way to Coimbatore, they stop in a field to have a picnic. A sudden gust blows, and Raghava manages to pull the metal nail crosses. It twists out of the ground and stays in the picnic basket. During the function, the whole family, including Raghava's female cousins Priya, Kavya, and Divya, witnessed strange and scary incidents during the day and night at their grandparents' house. They visit a Muneeshwaran temple, and the aghori gives them a holy trishula to plant. That night, the spirit drags Priya out of the house, and the trishula lands in front of her. They visit the aghori, and he gives them three scary dolls to prove if there is a ghost, ghoul, or vengeful vampire. They send Raghava, his female cousins and his grandparents to hand out posters while they conduct the rituals.

While conducting the first ritual, a black horse smashes through the house and drags Raghava's brother. During the second ritual, a herd of bulls enters the house and scares Raghava's family. They nail and rip the doll's head off in the final ritual. Raghava’s family exits the house. The ghost eats the head and scares them. The aghori goes to their house and lies to them about having caught the spirit. Raghava, Priya, Kavya, and Divya return. One night, Priya kisses Raghava, and the ghost possesses him after he looks inside the picnic basket. The following night, the girls witness Raghava behaving effeminately, wearing heels, applying lipstick, and applying mascara to his eyelashes. That same night, the possessed Raghava brutally stabs Shankar’s assistant and slaps Raghava’s brother and sister-in-law.

The possessed Raghava reveals his violent spirit after his female cousins hug and flirt with him. He beats up Raghava’s cousins and family. Raghava’s grandparents return home, and Raghava’s mother tells him that Raghava is possessed by two spirits, a male and a female. Raghava’s grandfather calls the aghori. The aghori returns to their home and tells them that he lied for a good cause. He reveals Kaali’s flashback.

Past: Kaali is a social worker who followed in his late mother’s footsteps. He runs an ashram that gives shelter and food to the poor and has also contributed to the studies of aspiring youths. One day, a rowdy named Bhavani, the younger brother of a minister called Shankar, enters Kaali's ashram. He asks to keep a sum of black money worth ₹100 crores in his ashram. He tells him that he should return ₹80 crores and keep ₹20 crores as a source of funding for his ashram.

However, Kaali refuses, which angers Bhavani. He leads his associates to kill one of Kaali's handicapped innocents. Enraged, Kaali kills Dheena, the man who murdered the handicapped boy. Then he murders 'Royapuram' Murthy, Bhavani’s right-hand man, and finally Bhavani. He gains the support of his people after Bhavani’s murder. After learning this, Shankar and his assistant devise a plan to kill Kaali. When Rosie and Kaali take a romantic ride on a bike, Shankar appoints two lorries and crushes them both. Rosie dies on the spot, and Kaali dies after watching the video of his ashram, the Radhaamma ashram, and his innocent supporters getting destroyed in a fire accident orchestrated by Shankar.

Present: The possessed Raghava sets out to kill Shankar. However, Shankar has already arranged for Russian exorcists to crush Kaali. After Goddess Kali enters Kaali, Kaali surpasses the exorcists and kills Shankar, thus avenging his and Rosie's deaths. Kaali and Rosie safely return Raghava to his family and leave.

Following the success of Kanchana 2 (2015), 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.^[4] He subsequently moved on to work on two other films, Motta Shiva Ketta Shiva (2017) and Shivalinga (2017).^[5][6]

Lawrence revived the project in August 2017 and revealed that he was finishing the script. The regular supporting cast of Kovai Sarala, Manobala, Sriman and Devadarshini were retained.^[7][8] Sun Pictures, who had recently produced who had previously produced Enthiran (2010), agreed to produce their film, marking their second production.^[9] In late September, the following actresses were added to the project: Oviya, following her popularity on the Tamil reality show Bigg Boss, Vedhika from the first film, and newcomer Nikki Tamboli.^[10]

The shoot of the film began in Chennai during the first week of October 2017. Nivetha Joseph was the costume designer for this film.^[11] The movie was released on Good Friday in 2019.^[12]

Raghava Lawrence selected Anirudh Ravichander to compose the music to this film. When he was unable to compose the music for this film, Lawrence signed 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, but later Raghava Lawrence unilaterally changed his stance to engage Saravedi Saran with 2 of the film's songs, while other songs will be composed by Sekar Sai Bharath, Jessie Samuel (who earlier sung one of the songs in the film Jarugandi), Bharath Madhusuthanan and the Sri Lankan duo of Raj Thillaiyampalam-Kapilan Kugavel.^[13] The background music was composed by Thaman, who earlier composed for director's previous Kanchana and Kanchana 2 film.

Despite mixed to positive reviews, Kanchana 3 performed well at the box office.^[14] The film received mixed reviews from audiences, with comparisons made between Kanchana & Kanchana 2.^[15] The dubbed Kannada version titled with the same name, and was panned by critics.

Film Companion South wrote, "In theory, I am a fan of mixing humor 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?"^[16]

The movie was released on 19 April 2019.^[12]

• Kanchana 3 at IMDb
• Kanchana 3 on Sun Pictures