It's become a fad to have a transvestite or a gay character in movies these days and make a mess of their presence and motive in the drama; not everyone comes up with a politically correct or an entertaining film. Anyone with a passing familiarity to the recent releases of this genre clichés will be able to shout every line along with the actors and also predict what the next move of the character would be. In Kanchana, Lawrence — the seriously over-rated actor — is a cross dresser and is committed to dole out some hysterically over-the-top dramatics. The script demands Raghava (Lawrence), a youth of marriageable age, to climb on to his mother's (Kovai Sarala) hip because he is a wimp and is paranoid of ghosts. But who's the ghost? To reveal the plot would be hurting prospects of Lawrence's ambitious dubbed plot that has a release over 250 theatres this week.
The film is awkwardly cobbled together with big shifts in character that comes with an explanation only in the last 20 minutes of the film. The character of the transvestite is more based on wishful thinking than plausible reality. Lakshmi Rai plays his sister-in-law's sister who is designed to fall for him at first sight. She is a model who believes in flaunting her skimpy loose designer wear at home in the mornings and sports a skin tight dress that barely allows her skin to breathe before she hits the bed at night. In this exceedingly loud film, the ghost horrifies the characters and the characters terrorise the audience. Kovai Sarala and Lawrence occupy the entire screen. Sarat Kumar makes a guest appearance that's not quite appreciated. With quite a few films opening this week, it shouldn't be hard to find a movie more appealing than this.
