BOTTOM LINE: A Clumsy, Directionless Thriller
Rating: 2/10
| Platform: ZEE5 | Genre: Thriller |
What Is the Story About?
A single parent Priya and her daughter Aishu move to a new apartment in Chennai to start life afresh after a personal tragedy. However, destiny has other ideas with their stay in the apartment, whose sixth floor is believed to be haunted after one of its residents had committed suicide several years ago. The mother-daughter duo is spooked by a series of creepy incidents within the vicinity of their residence after which Aishu suddenly goes missing. A concerned Priya has little clue about the whereabouts of her daughter. The apartment forms a crucial link for her to find more answers. Will the mother be successful in her quest?
Performances?
Not many known faces feature or have concrete roles in the show beyond Poorna. The actress who’s been a regular in the thriller space in Telugu films comes up with a decent performance, though the writing restricts her to be a melodramatic caricature. Amzath Khan, Vivek Prasanna’s role are too brief and un-affecting to showcase any acting mettle. Kakka Muttai-fame Shanthi Mani is efficient as long as she lasts.
Analysis
Kannamoochi is a dull, flavourless thriller, where there’s not much for the viewer to root for – neither the premise nor the visual form it adopts. For a thriller laced with emotion, a storyteller fails to bring any authenticity to the struggles of the protagonist. The director Avinash Hariharan mixes up elements of horror, emotion and thriller genres in this story where the detailing and filmmaking remains very basic and ordinary. The spookiness in the series is reduced to flickering lights, jump-scares and a sob-flashback story that hardly creates an impact.
It’s a series that should have made better efforts in scripting the backstories of the characters and the subsequent equation with each other. The show mistakes its protagonist’s sob-fest and helplessness for emotional depth. The urgency in the storytelling is amiss and the subplots don’t add up to the core plot quite well. The Biblical undertones in the sequence surrounding the kidnapping of the child is aimed to be metaphoric, however, the vague execution doesn’t help.
Though the makers try to generate curiosity surrounding the tragedy in the haunted house, the flashback episode turns out to be a damp squib. The thread surrounding the specially-abled child and the subsequent suicide isn’t convincing at all. The child-abuse segment could have probably reflected the trauma of the child more and less about the actions of the perpetrator. The climax, built like a revelation sequence, hardly surprises because of the dull execution. The ending has a suddenness to it and is shot rather shabbily.
Better writing, imaginative filmmaking may have provided some zing to the show that struggles to engage even within the two-hour duration. There’s an emptiness as you finish watching Kannamoochi – it doesn’t affect, haunt or surprise you. It’s like a memory that you know wouldn’t last for long. When there’s so much liberty to explore newer horizons and territories on the web, here’s a show that bafflingly doesn’t even try hard enough. The imaginative streak in Tamil cinema has failed to rub onto the digital space and its high time someone fills that vacuum.
Music and Other Departments?
Technically, Kannamoochi is a major disappointment – the blandness in the writing is apparent in the background score too. Visually too, there’s no sense of mood and a feel for the subject. The show may have been a draft version of a story that the writers had in their minds – it lacks nuance and a clear direction.
Highlights
Poorna’s performance
Drawbacks?
Hazy storytelling lacking any focus
Poor technical standards
Absence of any element of intrigue/tension
Did I Enjoy It?
Never
Will You Recommend It?
Not at all
Review by Srivathsan Naddadhur
We’re hiring!
We are hiring two full-time junior to mid-level writers with the option to work remotely. You need to work a 5-hour shift and be available to write. Interested candidates should email their sample articles to [email protected]. Applications without a sample article will not be considered.
