Female protagonists haven't had much luck in Tamil cinema. They've either been transformed into women on
a revenge spree in soft-porn films or reduced to cliches in sentiment-laden films that aim to appeal
to the womenfolk. June. R, with Jyothika playing the title role, falls in the latter category.
It adopts a fresh approach to a familiar sentiment but doesn't build on it.
June(Jyothika), so named because she was born in the month of the same name, yearns for a mother's
love and affection. When she sees Raniamma(Saritha) lying on the road hurt in an accident, she
admits her in the hospital and cares for her. Raniamma's son(Biju Menon) is about to admit her to
an old age home since he is off to America with his wife. So June suggests that Raniamma stay with
her instead.
While the driving force behind June.R is still the all-too-familiar 'mother sentiment', it
tackles it with a different approach. It reverses the usual adoption scenario since we have a daughter
'adopting' a mother here. So Jyothika gets a mother to shower all the love and affection she's been forced
to hold in her heart all along. And Saritha gets the child she deserves - someone who shows her the love
and respect a mother deserves. But the film fails to do enough with this unique scenario. It takes a long
time to set things up but spends too little time once it gets there. A song sequence is all we get to
understand the bonding between mother and daughter. Since this mother-daughter bonding is pretty much the
foundation of the film, it is definitely not enough.
The movie is almost frustrating towards the end. It actually sets the stage for an interesting nice tug-of-war
of affections. But it takes the easy way out and resolves it lamely. It then ends in a way that makes the
film seems almost pointless. And a completely unnecessary, all-too-brief cameo at the end only compounds
our irritation.
June.R seems a bit too amateurish even factoring in the fact that it is the director's first film.
The point-of-view shots are overdone and in one case, completely unnecessary. There are some jarring
jumps in the screenplay that are a bit disorienting. And the film has simply too many holes and loose
ends. There are a number of unanswered questions with no background being provided for the characters
and their relationships. The film actually clocks in at less than two hours and so the lack of details
is definitely not due to time constraints. Characters are painted in black and white and are cliched as
they come with the neglectful son, the rude and partying daughter-in-law, etc.
Jyothika, who like wine, seems to be becoming prettier as she grows older, does as much as she can with
her poorly-etched role. Saritha never gets a chance to smile except during the one song sequence. Kushboo
gives her role the dignity it deserves while Biju Menon is too bland to really earn our displeasure.
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