Jayaprada's husband is a very straight forwarded and a honest officer. That's one of the reason why he keeps getting threats of various kinds and seldom runs into trouble. On one such occasion, his fellow workers get jealous about his sincerity and frame him up in a controversy after which he ends up in prison. After a while, he dies within the cell out of shame and depression.
After her husband's death Jayaprada leaves to his hometown to spend the rest of her life. She lets Parvathy Nambiar, a wrongly convicted terrorist to accompany her to the village. After reaching there, Jayaprada gets to know about their daily struggles for water and actively tries to find a way to acquire that for the people.
A while later she gets to know about a well which has endless supply of water. But before Jayaprada could find a way to use that as a solution, the local politician get involved with this and soon things get put of her hands. The rest of the plot revolves around how she helps the people to acquire free and adequate water.
As the cast is full of experienced veteran actors, their performance were exceptional. The story rests on Jayaprada's shoulder and she has done a good job with leading it forward. Anu Haasan, Revathi, Rekha, Nasser, MS Bhaskar and Thalaivasal Vijay all play important roles and they have done justice to it. Parthiban's extended cameo role is entertaining as well as educating.
MA Nishad has attempted to make a film which revolves around country's most delicate issue - Water. So many villages are suffering to continue their day to day life as they struggle to obtain quality drinking water. Through Keni, the director talks about how local politics and ego effects the poor people. His direction is straight forwarded and easy to understand. However, the film lacks the necessary punch which makes the audience a little bored.
Naushad Shareef's cinematography skills come to the fore, and he has shot well. Though three music composers have taken care of the music department; Bijibal Maniyil, Kallara Gopan and M Jayachandran, their songs and background score isn't that great.
In short, Keni, is filled with social awareness.