Film: 6 Athiyayam
Directors: Cable Shankar, Shankar Thiyagarajan, Ajayan Bala, Suresh EAV, Lokesh and Sridhar Venkatesan
Cast: Taman Kumar, SS Stanly, Suresh, Sathanya, Divya, Kishore, Madhu Shri, Sanjeev, Chelladurai, Gayathri, Vishnu, Francis, Sangeetha, Vinoth Kishan and Aravind Rajagopal
Rating: 2/5
6 Athiyayam, an anthology of sorts, from six directors is a brave attempt — whacky but equally amateurish — that can’t be easily written off. Coming from an industry that’s known for producing mindless commercial entertainers week after week, it’s rare to find such outlandish effort. This collaborative effort may not be celebrated, but it definitely deserves to be embraced.
The film contains six chapters and what’s common in each one of them is the paranormal element, which works in parts but never wholesomely. Each chapter attempts to cater to different sections of the audiences. The first chapter about an imaginary super hero looks ambitious and the idea comes across as very appealing and convincing.
Soup Boy Subramani is another chapter that aims to entertain its target audience. It gives a nice commercial twist to the paranormal angle and the idea does leave you with a smile. Chithiram Kolluthadi, the last chapter, is for the section of the audience who like their curiosity and interest to be piqued. It’s also probably the only chapter which had so much of potential to be made into a full-length feature film.
Except for Super Hero and Chithiram Kolluthadi chapters, the performance of the actors in other chapters is a big letdown. Forget about being entertained, as viewers we’re not even invested in the characters let alone be engaged. A couple of the chapters are plain boring and they hardly evoke a sense of interest to sit through the attempt to do something different.
