Review of 24

24 (I) (2016)
7/10
A new era, but the past can never be forgotten.
16 May 2016
Vikram K. Kumar, the director of non-regular flicks like Manam, Ishq and 13B has come with another exhilarating movie - 24. Not many Sci-fi movies are produced in Indian Cinema every year, so this comes in as a new taste for the already fed-up audience. Thanks to Surya for always trying to bring us some offbeat movies to improve the fate of Indian cinema.

First of all, I'm glad to say that this movie, unlike most unorthodox movies produced in India isn't a copy of any Hollywood movie. Although it has a glimpse of BTTF, it cannot be cited as plagiarism in any way but rather can be called as a mere influence to develop this eccentric project. Second of all, let's forget logics while talking about such type of movies.

The movie opens up with the past where Sethuraman invents a watch that could play with time. This scene alone can tell you how good a cinematographer Tirru is who did a similar job with Krrish 3. Just after achieving the glory, in comes the antagonist "Athreya", Raman's own brother who tries to nab the watch by threatening to kill his wife. Here's where the astute scientist mind comes into play who hands the watch to the new-born son and then the boy himself to a woman to look after him.

Fast forwarding 26 years (to 2016) we have the young Suriya named Mani who works as a watch mechanic only under the guidance of his foster mother. In some surprising turn of events, he comes to know about the unprecedented capabilities of the watch and soon starts experimenting with it where at one point we experience the best shot of the movie. He then meets Samantha and as we expect he falls in love with her and makes her fall in love with him using some gimmicks as the rightful owner of the watch. These scenes are dragged a bit and we can see that this part of romance along with the non-essential songs are targeted at a specific set of audience to improve the reach. Not to forget, any such young fun- loving guy would experiment in the same way as he did that also lets him learn a lot about the watch.

Just before the intermission, we can see the protagonist and antagonist facing each other after which the awe-factor of the watch is known that also justifies the name given to the watch. A lot of regular type of drama goes on in the second half which can leave some audience to boredom but the character of Athreya still leaves you glued using his witty tricks to snatch the watch. Albeit, sometimes even he does some stupid things that could never be spoken of. What happens later is better to be seen on the screen.

Overall, 24 isn't a spectacular movie but is definitely worth a watch and does stand out among the heap of recipes we taste regularly. The cast and crew should well be appreciated with big names written all over it. The music by A. R. Rahman doesn't make a big impact on the movie although the background score is appreciable. As mentioned earlier, cinematographer Tirru has done a great job. The acting by Surya in the form of Athreya deserves applauds. As always, director Vikram K. Kumar should be appreciated to what he's trying to do in each and every movie. The flaws come in the form of the usual cliché-ridden scenes that still abide by the law of Indian cinematic rules. I felt like they could have done much better with this script. In fact, it could be made into a TV series as they've already planned a sequel to this film. I'd rate it 6/10 but +1 for letting us (Tollywood audience) watch a Sci-fi flick after a long time.
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