Sixer Movie Review: More like a sloppy dot ball

Most kids who grew up during the 80s and 90s would have used this iconic Chinna Thambi dialogue at some point: “30 rooba kudraa, kannu muzhuchu velai paarpen.” So, seeing a film promoted with this dialogue and its lead character being a nyctalopia (night-blindness) patient, is a bit intriguing.

The first few minutes of Sixer are, expectedly, filled with references to eyes like ‘Avarukku raja paarvai’ and ‘Avara parka 1,000 kannu venum’. Even the hero’s coffee mug has an eye on it. The use of this trope, plus the general execution, is entertaining for a while. And while the hits are insignificant when compared to the misses, the comic treatment, though downright juvenile in several places, remains harmless at least — at this point anyway.

But before we can breathe a sigh of relief about this, the bad humour hits us full on the face. Director Chachi makes Aadhi (Vaibhav) and Bala (Sathish) mistake a guy with shoulder-length hairdo for a girl. When he says, “Aiyo naan aambala!”, Bala gives the retort, “Illa naan nambala.” Cue canned laughter, I guess?

Cast: Vaibhav, Palak Lalwani, Sathish
Director: Chachi

At a time when the world is making slow strides towards learning about and accepting the LGBTQ+ community, Sixer decides to make fun of gay people in the most distasteful manner. A so-called ‘comedy’ sequence involving Chaams as a lascivious gay man is absolutely repulsive. It’s high time filmmakers realise that people from the LGBT community are not sexual predators, and featuring them in this manner is downright irresponsibile, especially in U-certified films like Sixer, which may be watched by impressionable children and teenagers.

And then there is the scene where Bala’s friend, who tries to help his love by acting as a psychiatric patient, is forcibly given shock treatments, leaving him paralysed and insane. If this were any other film, this would have been a heartbreaking scene, but in the universe of Sixer, this is considered humour. Ghibran’s score is what cues us into the fact that the film thinks of this as a joke. The BGM plays this important role throughout Sixer. Trumpet sounds cue comedy scenes, and violin wails signify pathos. 

In one scene, Bala dresses up as Singaravelan Kamal and visits his girlfriend’s office to pacify her. Everyone in the office, including the girl, looks at him in total confusion. It may be one scene for the actors, but it symbolises the entire movie for the audience. Sixer is a bowler who starts with a good run up, has great seam position, but then trips at the time of release and delivers a dead ball.