6 Athiyayam Review: A Novel attempt that fails nearly 6 times

Before moving on to say anything about 6 Athiyayam (meaning 6 Chapters), I must admit that this movie is certainly a novel attempt.

This is indeed a whacky attempt and kudos to the production as well as the full team for taking such a brave step.

We are being bombarded by a lot of horror movies with sub-genres (horror-comedy, horror-romance, horror-whatnot!).

In that context, the team of 6 Athiyayam have tried out something different.

However, an intriguing script on paper didn’t turn well out on screen.

The movie has been written and directed by six different directors – one for each chapter (Cable Sankar, Shankar Thiyagarajan, Ajayan Bala, EVA Suresh, Lokesh Rajendran and Sridhar Venkatesan).

All these chapters have one common element – horror.

The chapters are named The Superhero, Idhu Thodarum, Misai, Anamika, Soup Boy Subramani, and Chithiram Kolluthadi.

Among these only a couple of chapters do appeal slightly better compared to the other four which, unfortunately are, a big let down.

The casting for all the 6 chapters have a few familiar faces, but not too popular mainstream actors. That’s a plus indeed.

However, except a few, none of the actors perform with involvement – the characters stay so stranded and diluted.

The climax of all the chapters are shown in the end, one by one.

The horror element is not gripping enough, the stories and the screenplays are not at all engaging either.

Thankfully, the run time is crisp with no songs – otherwise that would have added to the tiresome watching of the movie.

The sound effects are not so great overall considering the horror element, but you can enjoy the highlighting of gentle sounds and noises of candid moments.

While we totally appreciate the effort to make something novel, the novelty is not translated well on to the screen.

We don’t have a reason to sit through and watch all the six chapters that neither engage us, entertain us, or scare us!

And we only have the feeling of having watch 6 short films. There is no professionalism on screen – right from make up to acting, everything screams “low budget”.

Overall, 6 Athiyayam could have been way better. The idea is interesting but the execution falls flat.