6-5=2: A REVIEW

BY SAMARTH MADHUSUDAN RAO

The day I came across the poster of the movie, it made me sit up and notice it. Horror is a genre that is totally neglected in Kannada Cinema (pardon me, for I shall not address Kannada Cinema as Sandalwood just for the sake of it. Why the hell would you want to ape all the other ‘wood’s?). The ones that are made, well, let’s admit that they are nothing but a sorry excuse to blend soft porn with what they term as a ‘Bhayanaka’ movie. The poster did seem to be different from the rest and gave me some hope.

The poster that dragged me to the theatre!

The trailer took my hope to another level. An exploding tiffin box, though not perfect technically is a simple yet effective scene to show as preview of the movie. It worked wonders for many who saw it online. But Kannada movies have this crazy habit of releasing good trailers and equally torturous movies. And one fine day, the movie with the least amount of publicity, made it to the screens. It pissed me off to the core. Why would you spend all your money and efforts to release your work without shouting out loud about it? The movie has no Sudeep or Darshan in it to pull the crowd in a jiffy. But no, the movie made it to the screens and by evening, the netizens (a very new breed of Kannadigas on Facebook) took to the movie page and bombarded it with some excellent reviews.

While I was sitting back in my office, I was like, Whaat theee f**k? And it was enough to push me to the theaters two days later. But a surprise awaited me. I walked into PVR in Koramangala for a 10:00 AM show as if I owned the theaters and boy, I was left scratching my head like an idiot. The LCD screen above the counters read, SOLD OUT!

A Kannada movie? On a Tuesday morning? SOLD OUT IN PVR? All the other movies, including Bullet Raja had very few takers and I was left aghast. Though deep inside I was happy with the unexpected development, I was pissed that I couldn’t make it. And the very night, I booked tickets along with my friend and made it to the cinema. The mood of the audience was very uplifting. Young, energetic crowd who otherwise will be seen acting all Angrezi amidst the Koramangala crowd with their pheku English, had turned up to watch. Two words. SOCIAL MEDIA!

And the movie finally started. I was expecting two things from the movie. Not-to-be-embarrassed with the vulgarity or to leave with ‘Ayyee-Nan-Maklu-Yettbittiddaare-Ivru’ dialogue, which I loathe to hear when I leave the hall during Kannada movies.

Anybody who has seen the trailer knows that it is a found footage movie or an inspiration from the famous, ‘Blair Witch Project’. I was only praying that they didn’t Google translate the script into Kannada, and hell they DID NOT! What I saw for the rest 120 odd minutes was a cleanly written, very well shot and a totally believable commercial horror.

The plot is simple. Six people go on a trek, only one returned. What happened to the other five is what the entire movie is about. Does the plot work? Hell Yeah! It is shot in the ***** forest (Watch the movie and your question of why the stars will be answered). The forest setting is so believable that, every leaf that crunches, every bird that hoots and every branch that shakes will make you pee in your pants(Depending on your tolerance level). When you find a forest that really looks beautiful and can be horrifying depending on your perspective, you need a good script and yes, the movie has it.

The narrative builds up with the introduction of all the kids and you know that the characters are one among you. The trek starts, everything is fine until you start noticing the eerie presence of someone. Horror movies have this tendency of scaring you in the beginning or in the middle and will leave you thirsty by the end. Or some keep everything for the climax and will leave you wondering as to when you will jump out of your seats. The writer (Yes, there is one and this is no found footage movie. All this is a publicity gimmick and surprisingly, it’s working brilliantly for them.) We don’t know who he or she is. Let’s wait for the success meet, shall we?

The writer keeps you interested with some surprisingly original and close to reality humour that will leave you giggling throughout the first half. As the characters move closer into the forest, things get a little serious and right before the interval; the Ghost makes its debut. A clichéd way to enter, but it did work for me. And the lights come on. You know that you are finally watching a good movie and something is in store for you.

Then comes the crucial part of the movie where all the jitters and squirms are stored for. Let me make it clear. This is no Exorcist or the first part of ‘Paranormal Activity’ that it will leave you with nightmares for days. But wait, it is not bad either. There is not a single moment where you will be bored or wondering as to why you decided to watch the movie. And that, mind you, is a big success for a filmmaker. Bravo!

The last forty minutes is where all the paranormal stuff breaks out in the forest. The ghost starts having its share of fun, scares the trekkers and finally does what it wants to do. Screw up their lives. All the scenes in the last forty minutes, inspired? Maybe. Entertaining? DEFINITELY!

6-5=2 is a movie that scared many people and had others laughing out loud after screaming like a girl. But it is not the scariest movie you have ever seen. What works for the movie, is the intentionally amateurish yet bang on camera work will keep you interested. And what I noticed today was that I don’t even remember the movie having background score. :/

The ambience noise and the changing of colour every time the ghost is near works pretty well. The actors all new and that works for the movie in a totally different way, making it an interesting experience. The writing is interesting, not lazy in anyplace and well planned till the last scene. The editing is nearly perfect. Jump cuts, flashes in many places to ensure that the scene doesn’t drag gives you this raw effect as if the video was really found and that they are showing only the spooky parts. Camera work-Very interesting and kudos to the person who handled it. Production-Nature did help them with a proper forest, fully grown, completely spooky.

Entertainment-Check, Spooky scenes-Double Check, Value for Money-A huge tick. I walked out of the movie with a huge smile. Because as a Kannadiga, my thirst for a good movie was long due since Lucia. 6-5=2 did it for me. A huge applause for the team for a clean, simple yet effective horror movie. I hate PVR though, for the fact that as soon as the movie got over, they started playing the jarring ‘Tamanche pe disco’ which took away the hangover.

6-5=2 works because it is honest and original in its intention. Go give it a try because the team deserves it and most importantly you deserve it because there hasn’t been a good Kannada horror in over two decades.

Here is a link to the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f9pEApwVUw