24 Movie Review , 24 Telugu Movie Review

Touted as a science fiction thriller,’24’ movie stars Surya, Samantha and Nitya Menon in the lead roles. The intriguing posters and the stunning teaser have created a lot of buzz on the film. Directed by ‘Manam’ fame Vikram Kumar, music for 24 is composed by A.R. Rahman. Hero Suriya himself produced the film on 2D Entertainment banner, and also played three roles in this film. Released amidst much hype as VFX and graphical extravaganza film and initial social media euphoria, let us see what ‘24’ has to offer.

Story (Spoiler-Free) : 24 movie has a path breaking story that was never attempted on Indian screen. Dr.ShivaKumar (Surya) is a scientist whose research is to invent a hand watch that is capable of time travelling a person. When the research is about to be fruitful, Aathreya (Surya) who is a rich baddy and twin brother of Dr.Shiva tries to snatch the watch from Shiva’s laboratory. In that process Aathreya kills Shiva’s wife. Shiva with his infant baby tries to escape from the scene along with Watch. Chasing them, Aathreya kills Shiva as well, but before dying Shiva Kumar hands over the baby and watch to a lady in the train.

Rest of the story is how the kid grows as Mani (again Surya), finds the watch. Then a spectacular mind game between Mani and Aathreya unveils.

Analysis:

’24’ movie has very engaging script on paper but after converting it to a full length cinema and due to insertion of Surya-Samantha love track and other filler elements, the main plot got diluted and overall movie pace has slowed down considerably., Few scenes at the beginning are extraordinary. Art work for Dr.Shivakumar’s home, his laboratory, villain’s convoy and train tracks etc is fabulous. A different world has been established. Once the story forwards by 26 years, then things got slowed down until Aathreya strikes back. Director Vikram Kumar tried to create a different ambience and in that process lost the soul of the movie. Not only for Telugu audience, even Tamil audience might not see any nativity in the movie. Mani’s home and the colony set are very weird. This is where director Shankar scores. Shankar keeps the main plot simple and then and uses Creative/VFX and takes us to a different level. Vikram Kumar got the main theme right and has failed in auxiliary elements. Neither sentiment nor romance connects us emotionally.

Suriya has played all three roles with exemplary ease. As wheel chair ridden Aathreya, he exhibits his career best performance. Tamil heroes have penchant for donning 4-5 getup in a movie just for sake of it, but in this movie story is very apt for Surya to don 3 roles. Samantha got a limited role, nothing much to talk about her role. Ajay got Aathreya’s assistant roles and played well.

The way time travel concept has been explained to common man is good, but at some point we’ll get bored with repetitive usage of time freeze technique. Director’s brilliance is showcased in last 20 to 30 minutes of the movie, all the open ends are connected and time travel technique is aptly narrated. Vikram Kumar has showed finesse around time travel concept. Especially the scene when all characters move back to 1990 and re-starts the proceedings is dealt with great skill. This is not an easy task even for a seasoned director. He closed all the open ends properly. Out of 2 hour 45 minutes movie, approximately the 1 hour 15 minutes or so , while Aathreya is on screen, movie is OK. But rest of the 1 hour 30 minutes is boring

All three songs were shot stylishly and are great on screen visually, but again that visual marvel is not effective because of  lack of proper lead scenes or lack of chemistry between hero heroine.

A.R.Rehman’s background score is of international quality at times, but lack of BGM or dull BGM in few scenes made those already dull scenes more dull. Cinematographer S.Tirru has done outstanding job in producing slick visuals

Positives:

Suriya as Aathreya
Bold story
Excellent visuals in songs
Brief VFX work initially
Climax

Negatives:

Lack of nativity
Samantha’s family irritates
Lag in both halves

Verdict : This is neither a Sci-Fi thriller nor a VFX movie. ’24’ is a slow paced family drama with a backdrop of time travel. Time travel part has been etched very well brilliantly, rest is just OK. You may watch it once with patience, that too go without any expectations around VFX. Initial social media euphoria may not withstand, and at Telugu Box-office it may struggle to recover the moolah, considering the upcoming biggies.

Telugu360.com Rating : 3/5

Banner: 2D Entertainment
Star Cast: Suriya, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Nithya Menen and some others.
Edited by : Prawin Pudi
Music: A. R. Rahman
Cinematographer : Tirru
Story & Director : Vikram Kumar
Producer: Suriya
Release date: 06.05.2016