KARNAN Review

Karnan is a 2021 action drama, written and directed by Mari Selvaraj, starring Dhanush, Rajisha Vijayan, Lal and others.

To begin with, Karnan is a bold, fearless and epic character from Mahabharata. Even though the movie Karnan is not related to any holy book or history, most of the characters has the name from Mahabharatham. The character Karnan played by Dhanush is a fearless young man. The village he lives in is considered a wasteland or abandoned by the nearby villagers and politicians. They don’t have a good road, public transportation and other facilities. The villagers usually walk to the nearby village to get any bus even if there is an emergency. When they face aggressive and bad behaviour from their neighbourhood village, Karnan stepped up to the forefront and reacted to them. Being a short-tempered person, Karnan aggressively destroyed their facilities and challenged the authorities and politicians to get their rights. Rest of the movie dealt with the authorities reaction to the villagers and Karnan.

Karnan is one of the best characters done by Dhanush. The adaptive power of Dhanush for each character he does is surprising. Undoubtedly the best performer of this generation. He has been taking Tamil Cinema to a whole new level. His screen presence, intense aggressive nature helped to portray Karnan as a fearless fighter. It is rare to see every actor in a movie compete to be perfect. Lal and Yogi Babu were stunning. All the other casts like Rajisha Vijayan, Natarajan, Gouri Kishan and others did their part perfectly.

The captain of the movie Mari Selvaraj just made a brilliant movie. He deserves all the credit. After highly successful Pariyerum Perumaal, he did the same fabulous work in Karnan. We have already seen the inequalities facing by some communities in Pariyerum Perumaal. Karnan almost conveys the same message but differently and aggressively. When you realize the content they show in Karnan was used to happen in many villages earlier, you will be able to know the difficulties and helplessness faced by many villages and communities to attain their freedom and developments. Most of them fought hard to get their rights. There were many villages and communities oppressed by the authorities earlier. A great appreciation to Mari Selvaraj for picking up this story.

Santhosh Narayanan’s music and BGM is another positive of the film. It was so apt for the movie. “Kanda vara sollunga” and “Manjanathi” were brilliant. The Cinematography by Theni Eswar was top notch. Another significant person for Karnan is its Art department, lead by the art director T. Ramalingam. Since the movie is happening during the early ’90s, the village sets looked so realistic and conveyed that feel very well.

Karnan is must watch for the story, making quality and some remarkable performances.