Movies on narcotics are pretty rare in the Indian cinema landscape except for an occasional scene in mainstream cinemas that has some narcotic consumption by the antagonist, just to show that he is a "Bad guy". Some mainstream cinemas based on narcotics are a joke, they are commercial ventures of dubious quality. Director Shanawaz Nellikunnil does two things with Candyflip, first it's an experimental parallel cinema, second it's an experimental cinema on substance abuse of different kinds. I would appreciate Shanawaz Nellikunnil for trying out something new for the Indian movie scene, even if the results aren't spectacular.
Cinematography is excellent and well handled, especially the trance sequences that are wonderfully shot and put together. Screenplay of Candyflip has some excellent moments but also contains some lethargic writing, mixed together. Since there are errors in the overall screenplay, the storytelling appears a bit letdown. Production design, costumes and makeup are decent. EDM inspired Music was good in general but great during the trance sequences. Editing issues are many and doesn't do Candyflip any favours in its 107 minute run time. Though Candyflip has a few big ticket actors Kalki Koechlin and Gulshan Devaiah have very less to do. Prakash Raj does a very different character altogether and gets it right convincingly.
Overall, Though many critics of big newspapers, in their reviews have called Candyflip as half baked, I would call the movie as an wonderful "attempt" by a debutant. The movie will not suit mainstream cinema audiences, I would recommend the movie only to parallel cinema fans to try out something new, with a warning that Candyflip is far from perfect. Maybe with some good writing in the middle and some more interesting characters in the mix, Candyflip would have been a different beast altogether. 6.1 stars out of 10 for trying out something different and fresh, bordering the bizarre.
