24 Movie Review

-It was a long time wish for me to write good about Suriya. He is an actor who experiments with different genres. His movies will have a great script and an out of the box thinking. But because of director's poor execution he faced lots of failures. A big salute for his bold experimentation.

-24 was meant to be a science fiction but we see more of fantasy and supernatural elements than science. Everything were shown as coincidences than as logical sciences. So please don’t expect a Nolan kind of material. Vikram's scale of thinking is vast and takes us to a different world through his narration. If you think for a second, you will find that the story's layers and its proceedings are nothing but your grandmother’s imaginary tale. Vikram is as good as your grandma in narration and thinking.

-Vikram straightaway gets into the business. He doesn’t waste time in establishing Sethuraman or Athreya's character..He goes to the most important scene in the very first shot itself. You don’t know the history of both Sethuraman and Athreya. You just know their motive. Why to waste time in keeping character establishment scenes when audience know who is who ??? A Hollywood style of start indeed.

-Vikram's dialogues and shots had numerous links and connections. He used his brain very well to connect small small things to a bigger breaking points. You can feel his intelligence in each and every scene of 24..Almost every scene ends on a high note and last 40 Minutes of the movie takes one to edge of his seat..

-Athreya is not sketched as a deadly or monstrous villain but he is just an intelligent and tricky selfish who do things desperately for a watch..So one can't expect or compare with other villain characters of Tamil cinema..Athreya is quite different from all and Suriya has done full justice to the role..Its Athreya's character sketching which overtakes the actor's performance..Kudos to Vikram..

-Only few actors can show huge differentiation in the characters they play..No one could have done this movie except Suriya (or Vikram may be)..It’s because Suriya won’t be seen as Suriya in his movies. He will be referred to the character he portrays(Be it Anbuchelvan, Sanjay Ramasamy, Chinna, Durai Singam, Deva).But for past 3-4 Movies Suriya was seen as Suriya and lacked a powerful character. Now Athreya and Dr.Sethuraman's character sketching  have made Suriya to go back to his golden times.

-Samantha portions were not that bad. It had its moments and she looked gorgeous throughout.."I’m basically a watch mechanic" was a repetitive dialogue and it had a purpose since it earned claps in pre climax portion. It was purposely kept to irritate the audience and later Vikram played smart by giving some scope for that dialogue.

-Commercial movies have a mother role just to support or to oppose hero's love..But in 24,Saranya Ponvannan was given a separate track. And that emotional conversation between Suriya and Saranya was shot brilliantly..Saranya's character brought in some emotional quotient to the movie..

-AR RAHMAN delivered his best..His songs were pleasant with his usual quality touch. The same song tracks comes as background scores with different instrumentations to convey different feels of emotions..Tats Rahman's mastery brilliance. Rahman playing "Aatral Arasey Track" with his instruments in the opening scene was a goose bump moment. And the  guitar sounds when Athreya comes out of the car in climax was a masterpiece.

-Cinematographer Thirru was the biggest support and Athreya'a success mainly lies in his lens work. He have given different shades for him in different time periods.Gray shades in present and Yellow shades in past took the villainism to next level..

-Art direction and Costume designing must be appreciated for their work. Athreya’s costumes and looks established the character's evilness even before Suriya started to act. But the train, vehicles, guns in 1990's looked as if we are in 1960's.Tat was puzzling a bit.

-If Indru Netru Naalai has not released, this movie would have been a mind-blowing movie..We have seen a lot of time travel in INN..So when we see comedies using time travel in 24that 'wow factor' won’t be felt. That’s not Vikram's mistake..It’s again Time playing the role. Still the cricket stadium scene was a cheeky imagination which brought out a loud laughter.

-Vikram follows magician's trick. He gives time for you to think and makes you to predict things..You predict and shout that "I’m right”. Then he answers through his twists that, "Well..Your prediction is nowhere near to what I have in the cards”. That’s what you witness from first scene to last scene in 24 !! Its Vikram's creativity and intelligence at its peak.

****PROJECT TWENTY FOUR : EXTRA-ORDINARY TO THE CORE****