6 CANDLES MOVIE REVIEW

Shaam, who after some initial moderate successes, faded away from the limelight of Tamizh cinema. Due to his poor choices of films, chances were dry and lacking and Shaam had to resort to other nearby tinsel-towns to keep alive of any cinema survival chances. And V.Z Dhorai appears to be handing out and olive branch to Shaam, though his own records are not so impressive, either. Will their '6 Candles' bring back the necessary attention and success they have been craving for ?

For Shaam, this is a sort of a make-or-break film, in relations to his career. He has earnestly poured his entire dedication and attention in bringing out the actual miseries and grievances endured by the protagonist character. His extreme changeover in physical appearances deserves plenty of appreciation and but its certainly not encouraging to put one's health and life at risk, just for revival of cinema career. Even after more than a decade of presence in film industry, the actor has not properly grasped the fine nuances of dialogue delivery and voice modulation, which takes away the sheen needed for certain sequences. Nevertheless, a very good try from Shaam. Poonam Kaur looks out of place as a young mother and her lip-sync, dubbed by Savitha, was a little messy. Not to forget her over-dramatized acting in emotional scenes. Munnar Ramesh was adequate and so does Anil Murali as an effeminate villain. The rest of the cast such as Nagi Needy, Master Vivethan, Narayan, Sandro, Nagendhiran and etc were functional.

M.Nanaji and Elias has done good homework in the costume designing, especially for Shaam's various change-overs. 'Super' Subbarayan's action choreography was well done, though the execution skills from Shaam dampened the actual intended impact. The meat market stunt scene was well choreographed, especially. K.Arusamy's production design was decent, especially with the police station set and also props for the many real-life locations, present in the film. N.Arun Kumar's editing was merely functional, but kudos to him for keeping the length of the film short and for having a direct-to-the-point narration with no lags and gaps in the screenplay. Krishnasamy's cinematography was gritty at a few places, but the visuals could have been much, much more better. A seasoned, ace-cinematographer would have done wonders, for such subjects.

Srikanth Deva's musical score was just namesake. "Aagayame" was the introductory song and featured the lead pair's happy family life, involving plenty of montages. "Bigulu" was a bit-song, shot in a whore-house like surrounding. "Thedukindrathe" also has plenty of montages and different cities as locations, with a radically changed Shaam, in search of his missing kid. The background score was a little loud, and Srikanth blew off a good chance to prove his credentials.

V.Z Dhorai, who has handled dark subjects or characters for his films such as 'Nepali' and 'Thotti Jaya', again threads a path less traveled. This time, he has taken the subject of child trafficking as his theme and kudos to V.Z Dhorai, for putting in good amount of research done for the script. He certainly keeps us engaged with the film, by keeping a crisp and tight screenplay and an honest story, with a heavy subject to experiment. Though V.Z Dhorai spoils the script with some over-the-top elements such as sudden heroism, he stills strikes us with some heart-wrenching moments, especially the pre-climax and the climax. The director can be lauded for his direct-approach in story-telling, though Jeyamohan's dialogues were a big letdown. The dialogues were just way too ordinary, and such scripts must have powerful dialogues, which can really sink in the true nature of the mood and feel of the scenes, into the minds of viewers. The subject can be a tad too heavy to digest for some, but the direction was fortunately (rather, unfortunate for the critics) quite average and amateurish. An average end-product leaves the genuine critics and film aficionados, a lot to be desired.

'6 Candles' - Great material, not-so-great execution.


Ratings: 2.5/5 STARS

BY:TAMIL