After a long time doing a movie review. Phew!!!!!!.......
And after taking a long time in production, here comes the most anticipated Tamil movie - "24". Unlike the American and Indian TV shows of the same names, "24" is a sci-fi action-adventure movie, with the usual ingredients of a regular Tamil commercial movie. Namely:- a) A charming protagonist b) A dim-witted damsel c) Twist in the story (actually a lot of twists in the story) d) Soulful music and Energetic BGM (though I miss the old A. R. Rahman I knew) e) Scintillating cinematography, beautiful locales and bright colours.
But the movie is not without its share of blemishes. And they're quite significant, which can never be ignored. But before I review this movie deeply (which includes spoilers), please read the synopsis.
Sethuraman (Suriya), a scientist and a watch company owner, has just completed his dream project called,"Project 24", which is - wait for it - a time-travelling watch. But his evil twin Athreya (Suriya) comes for 'his' watch, coincidentally on their (Sethuraman's and Athreya's) birthdays. In this process Athreya kills Sethuraman's wife (Nithya Menen), but Sethuraman saves his child and his invention, not without getting killed by his twin. Twenty six years later, Mani (Suriya) is a watch-mechanic, running his watch- repairing store, grew up with his foster-mother (Saranya Ponvannan), his goofy friend Saravanan (Sathyan) and a strange-looking wooden box. After a series of coincidences, Mani gets his hands on a strange-looking key, which unlocks the box and reveals the watch to him.
Mani uses this watch to play time-freezing and time-travelling, click a picture with M. S. Dhoni, make the Indian team win a cricket match, and convince the dim-witted damsel (Samantha) that she is suffering from 'Imaginoromansophilia', while wooing her. What happened to Athreya? Is he still alive? Will the watch take a toll on Mani's life and also on other's lives, which are connected to Mani? These questions are answered in the film "24".
Vikram K. Kumar, the man behind films like,"Yaavarum Nalam"/"13B", "Ishq" and "Manam", is back with an almost-disappointing-yet-entertaining screenplay. It is so, because there are a few contrivances regarding a few scenes and the sci-fi element of this film, like:- a) We see Samantha's character boarding a train to Chennai city, from a village, for studying. But we never see her studying even a page of a book, nor do we see her even entering a college.
b) Why can't we see a strong female character, apart from Nithya Menen's character (briefly)? Satyabhama (Samantha) was reduced to a dim-witted woman!
c) The songs look so forced in the narrative. They just act as beautiful fillers, because the songs, especially "Naan Un" and "Kalam En Kadhali", are melodious and are shot beautifully.
d) There are tons of cliché's and stereotypes, peppered with occasional misogyny.
e) The climax is quite satisfying, yet appears quite abrupt.
And so on.
Yet, I must confess, I, personally, really liked the whole movie. Each and every twist is so meticulously written, and every principal character is justified.
Screenplay (Vikram K. Kumar) was quite fast paced, despite the movie ticking 2 hours & 45 odd-minutes long. The story (Vikram K. Kumar), as I said, could've been dealt with more detail. The dialogues (Vikram K. Kumar) are a mixed bag. At times evocative, at times irritating and repetitive, at times appropriate.
Cinematography (S. Tirru) is, as I mentioned, scintillating. The Make-Up (Clover Wootton and Preetsheel G. Singh) deserve a special mention, especially for Athreya character's make-up. Convincing and just flawless.
Music (A. R. Rahman) is quite serviceable. But by Rahman's standards, it is quite disappointing. Only 2 songs were quite hummable, but are not quite memorable. Rest are just forgettable. Although, the BGM was quite evocative and lifts the mood of the scenes. The lyrics (Madhan Karky and Vairamuthu) are quite good, but not as good as their previous works. Though I must say "Kalam En Kadhali" by Vairamuthu suits each and every tune of the music provided. And "Naan Un" by Madhan Karky is quite romantic, and rendered as hauntingly melodious song by Mr. Rahman.
Editing (Prawin Pudi) could've been better. Had the film been trimmed by around 20-25 minutes, the impact of the film would've been better, as the songs, as mentioned above, play as a spoilsport in the narrative.
Stunts (Anbarivu) are choreographed as realistic as possible. Even the Dance Steps (Brinda, Raju Sundaram, Dinesh and Sridhar) are quite appreciable. Especially the dance steps in the song "Kalam En Kadhali", are quite apt.
The Art WorK (Amit Ray & Subrata Chakraborty) is just marvellous.
The Visual Effects (Julian Troussellier) are almost flawless, except for the concluding reels of the film, where the effects looked somewhat fake. The D.I. Colorist (Aashirwad Hadkar) deserves a special mention. Each frame looks great and rich in colours. My favourite one being the golden coloured frames, involving 2 Suriyas, one Nithya Menen and one Ajay, in both the initial and the concluding frames of the movie.
Off the cast, Suriya, playing triple roles, provided his career's best performance till date. He played the three different roles of Sethuraman, Athreya and Manikandan with utmost perfection. Nithya Menen, though appears for a short period, leaves an impact. Samantha's character is reduced to a cliché'd caricature, which Tamil movie audience is habituated to. So are Saranya's and Sathyan's characters. Mohan V. Raman is wasted, so is Girish Karnad, although Girish gets a chance to emote, in an otherwise thankless role. Ajay, who plays Athreya's right-hand-man Mithran, played to the gallery.
On the whole, as mentioned above, "24" could've been much better. Yet it is not totally bad. I give it a 7/10. Don't apply too much logic, and just flow with the tide.
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