The Malayalam film, starring Suraj Venjaramoodu, Tovino Thomas and Aishwariya Lekshmi is winning appreciation for its theme, narration and performance
Manu Ashokan has every reason to be thrilled. Both his films, Uyare (2019) and Kaanekkaane (streaming on SonyLIV) have ticked all the right boxes.
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If Uyare was about an acid attack survivor, Kaanekkaane, starring Suraj Venjarmoodu, Tovino Thomas and Aishwariya Lekshmi in the lead, is a family drama with elements of a thriller deftly blended into the story of guilt, vengeance and redemption.
“Scenarists Bobby and Sanjay had shared the one liner of this story some time ago. We never got down to working on it. We were planning a different film when the pandemic interrupted our plans,” says Manu.
During the lockdown, they thought of a subject that they could do within the limitations of adhering to the COVID-19 protocol. That’s how the film came to be. The scenarists told Manu about Paul Mathai, a bereaved father who suspects his son-in-law, who has remarried, of having some involvement in the accident and death of his daughter Sherin. Then they developed the plot with a story of relationships and how it evolves. “It is a film about guilt and forgiveness. There can be many ways of developing a plot. This was ours,” Manu emphasises.