Muni (film series)

Muni
Series logo
Directed by	Raghava Lawrence
Written by	Dialogues: Raghava Lawrence (Kanchana, Kanchana 2, Kanchana 3) Ramesh Khanna (Muni)
Screenplay by	Raghava Lawrence
Story by	Raghava Lawrence
Produced by	Saran (Muni) Raghava Lawrence (Kanchana, Kanchana 2) Kalanidhi Maran (Kanchana 3)
Starring	Raghava Lawrence Kovai Sarala Rajkiran Sarathkumar Devadarshini Sriman Vedhika Vinu Chakravarthy Raai Laxmi Nithya Menon Taapsee Renuka Oviya Nikki Tamboli Ri Djavi Alexandra
Cinematography	K. V. Guhan (Muni) Vetri E. Krishnasamy (Kanchana) R. B. Gurudev Rajavel Olhiveeran (Kanchana 2) Vetri Sarvesh Murari (Kanchana 3)
Edited by	Suresh Urs (Muni) Kishore Te. (Kanchana, Kanchana 2)
Music by	Original Songs: Bharadwaj (Muni) S. Thaman (Kanchana, Kanchana 2) Leon James (Kanchana 2) C. Sathya (Kanchana 2) Ashwamithra (Kanchana 2) Doo Paa Doo (Kanchana 3) Background Score: Sangeetharajan (Muni) S. Thaman (Kanchana, Kanchana 2) Doo Paa Doo (Kanchana 3)
Production companies	Gemini Productions (Muni) Raghavendra Productions (Kanchana, Kanchana 2) Sun Pictures (Kanchana 3)
Distributed by	Tamil: Gemini Productions (Muni) Sri Thenandal Films (Kanchana, Kanchana 2) Sun Pictures (Kanchana 2, Kanchana 3)
Release dates	1: 9 March 2007 (2007-03-09) 2 : 22 July 2011 (2011-07-22) 3 : 17 April 2015 (2015-04-17) 4 : 19 April 2019 (2019-04-19)
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Budget	₹800 million (US$11 million)
Box office	₹3 billion (US$40 million)

Muni is an Indian horror comedy film series created and directed by Raghava Lawrence who also appeared in lead roles in all the films. The first film is Muni (2007) and the second is Muni 2: Kanchana (2011) with the third installment of the franchise titled Kanchana 2 : Ganga (2015). The latest movie, the fourth instalment is Kanchana 3 (2019). and stars Raghava Lawrence and Kovai Sarala with Rajkiran, Sarathkumar, Devadarshini, Sriman, Vedhika, Vinu Chakravarthy, Raai Laxmi, Nithya Menon, Taapsee, Renuka, Oviya, Nikki Tamboli, Alexandra Ri Djavi. All films were successful at the box office, continuing the trend of the comedy-horror genre in Tamil cinema that began with Chandramukhi (2005).

All four films revolve around the same plot of a coward who gets possessed by a ghost to take revenge on the people who killed them, rest of the films shows how he takes revenge. Raghava Lawrence and Kovai Sarala are the only actors to appear in every installment of the series.

Overview[]

Muni (2007)

Ganesh, a young man with a deep fear of ghosts who refuses go out after 6PM, moves into a new house with his mother, father, and wife Priya. All of a sudden, Ganesh is possessed by a ghost and starts behaving in a rude manner; his family cannot understand his behaviour, so they seek the help of a priest named Andaiyar. Andaiyar asks the ghost about his past. The ghost says that he is Muniyaandi and starts revealing his flashback.

Muni was a kindhearted but poor man living in the slums with his daughter. His friend is MLA Marakka Dhandapani, who uses Muni to win local elections and promises that he would give lands to the poor villagers. Dhandapani wins the election but cheats Muni. Muni fights with Dhandapani, who kills Muni and his daughter. Dhandapani lies to the poor people by saying that Muni and his daughter fled with the money that he had given Muni for the welfare of the villagers.

Ganesh enters Dhandapani's household and terrorizes him and his assistants. Dhandapani learns that Muni's spirit is in Ganesh's body, so he gets a shaman named Mastan Bhai to save his life. Bhai bargains with Muni, who agrees to let Dhandapani go if he repents and helps the poor villagers. In the climax, at Ayyanaar temple, Dhandapani confesses to the people that he killed Muni and his daughter. He then leaves money with the villagers. Muni talks with the people and eats the feast prepared by them. Bhai tells Muni to leave Ganesh's body, and he does. However, Dhandapani lied and was planning to get back all his money from the villagers. Ganesh, upon hearing this, kills Dhandapani. Bhai sees this act but does nothing, as he finally sees the injustice done by Dhandapani.^[1]

Muni 2: Kanchana (2011)

Raghava is a typical jobless man but a lovable person who spends his days playing cricket with friends. He suffers from an irrational fear of ghosts and retreats to the safety of his home after sunset. His fear is so great he prefers to sleep with his mother and has her accompany him to the bathroom at night. This creates a major annoyance in the household, including Raghava's brother, sister-in-law, and their children.

One day, Raghava and his friends are forced to abandon their usual cricket ground and find a new one; they unwittingly select an abandoned ground which is rumoured to be haunted. A bizarre weather change scares them away. Raghava brings home his cricket stumps, which have been stained with blood from a buried corpse in the ground. He focuses on wooing Priya , his sister-in-law's sister. In the following days, his mother and sister-in-law witnesses several paranormal activities at night because of a ghost. On consulting a priest, they perform three rituals to ascertain if the house is haunted:

1. They keep a coconut on a rangoli and pray to Shiva. If the coconut spins, it is considered that the house is haunted, but only 50% sure. They start to do the next ritual.

2. They make a cow eat food. If the cow runs out of the house without eating the food, the house is considered to be haunted, but they just want to make sure and start to do the next one but are 75% sure.

3. They leave a lamp lit and two drops of blood and leave the house, stopping the electricity. Then the ghost of the woman appears and licks the blood. This is seen by the people, who were scared and ran away from the house for that night.

Scared senseless, Raghava's mother and sister-in-law hire two priests to get rid of the ghost from their house. The priests, however, are con men and run away after seeing the real ghost. That night, the ghost possesses Raghava, who begins acting increasingly effeminate, alienating himself from Priya and wearing women's clothes and jewellery. His family angrily confronts him, when it is revealed that there are actually three ghosts who have possessed him: a violent woman, a Hindi-speaking Muslim, and a mentally disabled boy. Raghava's family hires an exorcist, who drives the spirit away from Raghava's body. The ghost of the woman, trapped, reveals her story.

Karthik alias Kanchana is a transgender woman who was disowned by her parents. She is offered shelter by a kind Muslim named Akbar Bhai, who has an intellectually disabled son. Regretting that she could not become a doctor as she intended, she adopts another young transgender girl named Krishna alias Geetha and works hard to support her financially. When Geetha leaves to study medicine abroad, Kanchana buys a plot of land where Geetha intended to construct a hospital for the poor. That ground is unlawfully taken by the crooked MLA Shankar. Kanchana angrily confronts Shankar, who kills her. He also kills Bhai and his son. Before Kanchana died, she vowed to kill Shankar, his wife, and his henchmen. The bodies are then buried in Kanchana's own ground.

The exorcist sympathizes with her but remains duty-bound and traps her. After hearing her story, Raghava is touched; risking the danger, he allows Kanchana to possess him once again. Raghava/Kanchana confronts Shankar and disposes of his henchmen gruesomely. Shankar seeks refuge in a Narasimha temple which Kanchana is forbidden from, but she asks the deity for justice and manages to chase him inside the temple. The three spirits combined kill Shankar. A few years later, Raghava has constructed the hospital for Geetha as per Kanchana's wishes. He also unites with Priya.^[2]

Muni 3: Kanchana 2 (2015)

This movie is set two years after the events in Muni 2: Kanchana. The film begins with a couple visiting a friend's home for dinner. To their surprise, their friends were not home but instead the house was haunted by spirits. Then time skips to the present where Raghava is a cameraman for the channel Green TV where his crush Nandini 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 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, Dr. Prasad, and the anchor Pooja to complete the task.

While shooting on a nearby beach, Nandini discovers a Thali, and after the discovery, mysterious events start taking place. Because of this, she 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. Nandini does not 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 does not 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 is also killed by the ghost. Nandini tries to wake Raghava up but is too late, as she becomes possessed by the ghost.

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 him. 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. They then run to a church and learn about Shiva and Ganga.

Ganga is handicapped, but Shiva loves her anyway. Unfortunately, Marudhu killed and buried them when Ganga refused to marry his insane son Shankar. Also Marudhu killed Shiva and Ganga's family and made Shiva's best friend insane. Before dying, Shiva killed Shankar. When Raghava (possessed as Shiva) kills Marudhu's brother, he learns that a spirit killed him. He gets a Tantrik 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 return whenever they needed him; the story of Shiva and Ganga restores Green TV to first position.^[3]

Muni 4: Kanchana 3 (2019)

The ghost-fearing Raghava and his happy family consisting of his mother, brother, sister in law, and their daughter set out to Coimbatore for a family function, and there, the whole family, including Raghava's female cousins Priya, Kavya, and Divya, witness strange and scary incidents at their grandparents' house, as well as Raghava getting possessed. The subsequent events return to another character named Kaali.

Kaali is a social worker who runs an ashram that gives shelter and feeds poor people. He has also contributed to the studies of poor youths. One day, a politician named Bhavani, the brother of the minister, Shankar enters Kaali's ashram. He asks to keep a sum of 100 crores in his ashram, which is black money, and return 80 crores and keep 20 crores as a source of funding to his ashram. When Kaali refuses, he sends his men to kill Kaali's handicapped innocents, which angers Kaali. He then sets out to kill Bhavani's henchmen and finally him. When Bhavani is murdered, Shankar is angered and his assistant devises a plan to kill Kaali. When Rosie and Kaali take a ride on a bike, Shankar appoints two lorries and crushes them both. Rosie dies there, and Kaali dies watching the video of his ashram and his supporters getting destroyed in a fire.

The possessed Raghava sets out to kill Shankar. However, to his surprise, Shankar had already arranged exorcists to crush Kaali (possessed Raghava). However, surpassing them, he kills Shankar and avenges his death.

In the end credits, it is shown that Kaali and Rosie join hands together and walk.

Films[]

Future films[]

Recurring cast and characters[]

This table lists the main characters who appear in the Muni film series.

Additional crew and production details[]

Release and Revenue[]

Box office performance[]

The franchise has been notable for its profit, with Muni^[4] and its follow-up having earned a combined profit of ₹333.7 crore, according to IBtimes.^[5]

Legacy[]

Along with Chandramukhi (2005), Muni became a trendsetter for horror comedy films. The success of the film inspired several other horror comedy films including the Aranmanai film series (2014) and Darling (2015).^[9][10][11]

References[]