Korean Kanakaraju Movie Review

Mega Prince Varun Tej is going through a lean phase for quite sometime. He decided to keep experiments aside for a while and try entertainment genre. He teamed up with director Merlapaka Gandhi for a Horror comedy film, Korean Kanakaraju. Let us see how the movie turned up.

What is the Movie About?

Korean Kanakaraju is set up in Penukonda backdrop. A vessel containing ashes of a Korean Man comes all the way from Korea to Penukonda. Kanakaraju consumes the ashes mixing liquor and gets possessed by the Ghost. What is the story of the Ghost and what happens when Kanakaraju lands in Korea forms the rest of the story.

Performances:

Varun Tej is seen in two different characters – a mass character Kanakaraju in Penukonda and Ghost possessed character in Korea. He pulled off both the characters effortlessly. He put in good effort in the dances and stunts too. The sincerity is clearly visible on screen.

Rithika Nayak is strictly okay but her character is clearly underwritten. Satya is a major highlight of the film. He gets a character with substance and stole the show with his comedy timing and unique histrionics. Sunil, Srinivas Avasarala, Muralidhar Goud, VT Ganesh, Bulli Raju, Senior Actor Chinna, Tulasi have got little roles and they are okay in whatever they were given.

Technicalities:

Merlapaka Gandhi has written and directed Korean Kanakaraju. He is only a partial success in the writing department. While the comedy worked big, he faltered in the story department as it is riddled with predictable all over.

Thaman’s songs were disappointing except for Kamsahamida to some extent. The Background Score in the Korean portions appeared so close to his work in OG. In the interval where the BGM first arrives, it gives a fresh feeling but very soon, that gets redundant with the same tracks getting repeated multiple times. Manoj Reddy Katasani’s camera work is strictly okay. Editing is a mixed bag. The Production Values are again strictly okay.

Positives:

Satya’s Comedy
Varun Tej’s Performance

Negatives:

Predictability in the Story
Convenient Writing
Climax

Analysis:

Horror Comedy is a unique genre where the audiences are liberal. Over the years, it has been one of the genres with highest success rate. That is because a few jump scares and horror-based comedy satisfies the audience easily.

Korean Kanakaraju is a mixed bag. The movie works in Comedy Department thanks to Satya but the story right from the start to end reeks familiarity and convenient writing. The Kia – Penukonda – Korea backdrop is attempted for the first time in Telugu Cinema and it works in favor of the film. Very soon after the introduction, the village conflicts and love story area beaten to death formulaic. The director commits a mistake by not delving into the story very early. The core story begins only just before the Pre-interval.

Once it begins, two back to back comedy blocks involving a dog and a graveyard works terrifically. The interval is also fine giving rise to hopes of an interesting second half. But then, the predictability comes back with a vengeance in the second half. The Korea proceedings, Twist involving Avasarala Srinivas, and Bulliraju track do not impress. The climax again is disappointing with convenient writing and tacky VFX. But then, a Vaseekarana Pooja block and continuous funny one-liners by Satya keep the audience interested in the second half.

Finally, Korean Kanakaraju is a mixed bag while it scores in the comedy department, it falters in the writing department. Try it but have your expectations in check.

Bottomline: High on laughs, Weak on script

Rating: 2.5/5