“A fight for drinking water,” a district collector (Revathi) announces in the beginning of the trailer for MA Nishad’s upcoming bilingual Keni (Well). “Such fights aren’t new of course. They have raged on for centuries. This fight that you see here too is for the same.” Keni is set to be released on February 23.
Set in a town on the border of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, Nishad’s film stars Revathi, Jaya Prada, Nassar, Anu Haasan, Parthiban and Parvathy Nambiar. The movie will be released in Malayalam as Kinar and in Tamil as Keni.
The movie tackles the tussle over the sharing of resources between states, echoing the many ongoing inter-state water conflicts in the country. The trailer promises a bitched battle for drinking water, centred on a well and involving many stakeholders: villagers, government officials and politicians.
Keni has also made headlines for its song Ayya Sami, sung by SP Balasubrahmanyam and KJ Yesudas in their first collaboration in 27 years.