Muni is a series of Indian Tamil comedy horror films created and directed by Raghava Lawrence who also appeared in lead roles in all the films. The first film is Muni and the second is with the third installment of the franchise titled Kanchana 2 : Ganga. The latest movie, the fourth instalment is Kanchana 3. All films were massively successful at the box office, continuing the trend of the comedy-horror genre in Tamil cinema that began with Chandramukhi. 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.
Basis for all films
All movies are actually not connected with each other, instead showing another episode in the life of Ganesh/Raghava. He is usually terrified of ghosts. He always comes back home before 6pm. When somebody or something does scare him at home, he immediately jumps on his mum's hip. He always goes to sleep and goes to the bathroom with this mum as well. When he does go to sleep, he has a set up. He puts slippers and broomsticks around his bed to protect him from ghosts. He even puts slippers underneath the photo of his dead father, in case he comes in form of a ghost and attacks him. A grown man doing this is why there is a lot of laughs in the cinema. He has different love interests in each movie with funny parts of him trying to woo them. Soon, they get together. They usually have not much scope in the movie other than that, except for Kanchana 2. The love interest is also possessed by a ghost and both her and Ganesh/Raghava act weird. Ganesh/Raghava normally goes to a place where there is a ghost. For example, in Muni they move into a new house, in Muni 2: Kanchana it's a field where he plays cricket and in Kanchana 2 it is an abandoned house for a TV show about ghosts, and in Kanchana 3, a tree at a forest. Later, it roams around their home for a bit, causing more comedy bits. Then, suddenly it goes inside Ganesh/Raghava causing him to act weird and freaking out people around him. Then his family arranges a ghost expert to get the ghost out of him. This is where the ghost tells them who they are. Normally, they are innocent people who have been killed for no reason and want to take revenge. Ganesh/Raghava feels sorry for the ghost and lets it use his body to take revenge. Eventually the ghost does take revenge, with a few obstacles. Because Ganesh/Raghava helped the ghost, they are ready to protect him if he is put in danger.
Films
Muni Ganesh who is a coward stays in a new house with his family where the ghost of Muniyandi has been hovering. Muni was a poor and kind-hearted man who was used by his friend Dhandapani for his advantage. Dhandapani cheats Muni and gets him and his daughter killed. Rest of the film shows Ganesh being possessed by him and taking revenge. Muni 2: Kanchana Raghava who fears to venture outside during evening gets possessed by a transgender called Kanchana to take revenge on a minister who killed her for land-grabbing. Muni 3: Kanchana 2 Raghava is a cinematographer for a TV channel and he loves Nandini who wants to shoot a fake ghost-haunted house so that the TRP rating will increase. To their misfortune, they actually get haunted by not one but five ghosts. They learn that they are the souls of Ganga, Shiva, Ganga's friend, her daughter and husband who were killed by a man who wanted Ganga to marry his disabled son who was also killed in the process. Muni 4: Kanchana 3 The ghost-fearing Raghava and his happy family set out to Coimbatore for a family function, and there, the whole family, including Raghava's female cousins and his lover Kavya and others, witness strange and scary incidents at their grandparents' house, as well as Raghava getting possessed. The subsequent events return to another character named Kaali.
Along with Chandramukhi, Muni became a trendsetter for horror comedy films. The success of the film inspired several other horror comedy films including the Aranmanai film series and Darling.
