Direction: Ravi Bharathi
Music: Jaivee
Production: S.P.S. Mediaa works
New attempts in technical panoramas deserve special praises for ‘Sanikizhamai Saayangalam 5 Mani’. A daring technical attempt, the movie takes an unusual route in the second half that categorizes the film under the genre of ‘Crime-
Thriller’. What differentiates ‘Sanikizhamai Saayangalam 5 Mani’ is the factor that it is the world’s first full length feature-film shot with a HDSLR still camera. Made with a Canon HDSLR - 5D Mark 2 and a Canon HDSLR - 7D, the film offers a different experience in the visual aspects.
As the title signifies, the film starts at 5 p.m. on a Saturday and ends at the same time the following Saturday. When the heroine Maha (Malini) decides to elope and marry her boyfriend Sakthi (Sarath), she goes missing during her bus journey from Kodaikanal to Batlagundu. As the entire family is discombobulated, Maha’s uncle Aathi begins his investigation. Sakthi, along with his pals sets out to unravel the mystery behind her disappearance. The journey is filled with some unexpected twists, turns and emotional realms.
Cinematographer Guhan’s ability to utilize the HDSLR to the fullest yields good results. Worth mentioning is his creative composition of shots. But we do feel that the picturing of songs could have been better.
In recent times, crime-thriller subjects haven’t been so common in Kollywood. The film basically carries an engaging screenplay with some good twists. In the first half, the director takes time to unveil the plot, probably planning to capture the viewers’ attention more in the second half. Though this gives a feeling that the first half is a little lengthy, the second half makes us sit and notice as Ravi Bharathy has induced interesting moments in unfolding the plot.
A couple of sequences have been crafted well that involves the protagonist planning through a conversation between mother-son: ‘Search from the same way you came, you will find it’. That’s an apt metaphorical reference. The cop’s emotional display when an abandoned body is carried from the step is again a good job. Disentangling the knots by the protagonist is neat, especially evident in the tracing of phone calls that leads to Moonar.
The star cast could have fared even better to give more life to the storyline. The good looking hero Sarath has scope for growth in the tinsel world, if only he could slightly fine tune his emotions. Malini’s performance could have been better too. Foot tapping numbers are worth mentioning.
Overall, ‘Sanikizhamai Sayangalam 5 Mani’ has some brilliant flashes and it’s laudable that Ravi Bharathy has exercised his ability to narrate an exclusive tale. It is true that the film could have found an exclusive place in Tamil cinema if it had a tighter screenplay and strong performances but director Ravi Bharathy and his crew must be lauded for their effort to conceptualize a unique essay which makes the movie a decent watch.
