There is an authenticity to these characters. Even if they have got only a few lines to speak, they seem important to the narrative. Kanaa makes for an entertaining watch but you canвЂ™t deny itвЂ™s cliched. Though the team resist him at first, eventually, they realise only he can make them forget their differences and play as a team for the country. You canвЂ™t help but think of Shah Rukh KhanвЂ™s role in Chak De India here.

He is inspiring, canny and profoundly hopeful. I think for the first time he has attempted something different without any of his trademark quirks. He is surprisingly subtle and does whatвЂ™s required for the role. In the second half, you see Sivakarthikeyan making his entry into Kanaa as Nelson Dilipkumar, a cricket coach. For a debut filmmaker, he has done a great job. However, Arunraja Kamaraj achieves a fine sense of balance in narrating parallel stories without one overshadowing the other. Kanaa touches upon the plight of farmers, the difficulty to repay loans, the rising tide of suicides among them, and how they are forced to bear the increasing burden of uncertainty. The romance angle could have been stronger, but hey, I get it - women-centric film and all that. Murali Krishna (Darshan) pursues Kausalya, but she calls him вЂannaвЂ™, and you know where this goes. The first half takes its time to build-up, predictably. In particular, I quite liked the scene where Sathyaraj metamorphoses from a farmer into an advocate of womenвЂ™s rights. A big thumbs-up to Aishwarya Rajesh, who has convincingly pulled off Kausalya.

There is humour and there are also several poignant father-daughter emotions all through. Kanaa explores various themes including gender inequality, the ethnic and regional prejudice besides sexism that revolves around womenвЂ™s cricket. Naturally, you root for Kausalya and want her to achieve her dreams. She comes from a place that considers ambition as a dirty word for women. Instead he says, вЂњIndha pass fail ellaam sambadhikkaravangalukku dhaanвЂ¦ saadhikkaravangalukku illa.вЂќ When Kausalya says she failed in her final exams, he doesnвЂ™t yell at her. He defends his daughter in her absence, and does everything possible to make her happy. He is, in fact, the ideal father that any girl would love to have.

Kanaa movie fandango