Here even Science can be illogical.
The corollary is that sci-fi has no limitations. Also our cinema is all about
heroics at the cost of not just credibility and storytelling but every other
aspect of cinema. The strength and bane of our cinema is the star. Everything
revolves around this fulcrum. So does 24. It is Suriya centric. It is riveted
in and around the characters Suriya plays. The hype already shows results at a
multiplex where multiple screens have the same film screened to packed houses.
Writer Director Vikram Kumar takes on a time wrap and his sci-fi is more about
the divide between good and evil and the success of the former. It pushes the
Rakesh Roshan genre a level higher and borrows heavily from the formula set up
by RR. An over dramatic and prolonged prologue before the credit rolls tell us
of two look alike brothers (twins) separated in birth by 180 seconds and thus
the 180 degree stance!! Bros Shiv Kumar – good (Suriya) and Athreya – bad
(Suriya) are engaged in taking control of time and the time machine. Strangely
even the maker of an ambitious science fiction film does not know to draw the
line between Physics and Chemistry for detail and authenticity. So in this one
man laboratory at Hosley Hills the scientist Siva is in the midst of a
breakthrough in his research to control time with a gadget. Bad Bro Athreya is
out to snatch the powerful tool with aide Mitra (Ajay). An over the hill fight
and chase leads to dramatic blood splash and loud over dramatic typical Southie
start. The brothers make a temporary exit – one for good and the other in coma.
The good guy dies, the bad guy is in coma. FF 26 years we have Mani (Suriya in
Form III) running a watch repair shop with foster Mom Satyabhama (Saranya
Ponvanan). The watch dad made and saved from evil brother is now with him and
he accidentally gets to it and deciphers its working. Genetic coding of
parental chromosomes leave him with the acquired skills of dead Dad. He plays
with the new found toy, falls in love with Satya (Samanta), uses it for little
things that include winning a T 20 against Sri Lanka which we really lost etc.
Bad Bro Athreya is now bad Uncle Athreya who is out of coma once the watch
begins to tick. He catches up with his nephew and chops of his forearm to gain
the wrist watch. At this stage they are literally hammering one another.
Post break, we have Athreya realising that he needs Mani to fine tune the
gadget and the wrist watch. He plays his various ingenuous tricks on the family
members. In a parallel that needs to connect all loose ends, we have foster
mother Satyabhama as none else but the daughter of grand patriarch (Girish
Karnad) whose granddaughter is Satya. How they all catch up with one another,
all together and make it to a finale is about the watch mechanic, his
congenital smartness dance and fight skill sets, romance makes for the never
ending script stretched over two and a half hours and more.
The film is built around Suriya and the entire script is dedicated to him. It
believes that if he can carry it, nothing else matters. Once you subscribe to
that idea and only if you do, then 24 is all fine and show case of the coming
of age of the technical aspects of our cinema. Mani keeps repeating in the film
that he is a watch mechanic. The audience is expected to lap this up by virtue
of the sales person and not the product.
It ends up being a mechanic watch of a watch mechanic.
Rating: 2.5 stars
_ over dramatic and long
+ Suriya.
L. Ravichander.