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On the one hand you get stylized action sagas that arrive with deafening pre-release dhamakas which later sink without a trace. On the other hand, which is very rare, you get to see films like 24 Hours that arrive without as much a whimper, that knock you down with their hardboiled ambience leaving a punchy aftertaste in your mouth.
Director-writer Aditya Sam Abraham's feature debut is a fascinating experiment in film making where he doesn't opt to walk the easy pathway out. His film is a richly textured thriller that is startlingly original, the execution of which is remarkably deft. The avant-garde design that Aditya adopts for his film shows a high regard for his audience that he believes to be intelligent. His tale, set in a dark city where he lets lose his brash protagonist, chronicles twenty four hours and the events that unfold therein.
Jagan (Kuldeep) isn't exactly having a good day and is thrown out of the house by his elder brother (Devan) for having created a ruckus on the main road that he takes for a racing track. Off he heads to have a few drinks where it gets even further worse, with Hazari (Irshad) getting murdered and Jagan being assumed to be the murderer. It doesn't help much that Zafari happens to be the brother of mafia don Ikhthar (Manoj K Jayan). When Ikhthar sets his men after Jagan, the young man finds himself on the run, while the clock vigorously ticks away.
24 Hours does belong to the neo-noir genre of film making in that it deliberately dismantles the layout that you normally associate with a film as this. The suburban landscape and the gritty men who get to play around on it represent a new wave that at times recycles recognizable moments and yet maintains its own unique sensibility.
The no compromise stand that has been adopted by the director could be seen in the no-nonsense-songs stand as well. We are hence thankfully spared those jigs shot in Guatemala and Uzbekistan. Aditya instead focuses on the solid thrills and doesn't fuss about in their delivery. The kind of hardcore realism that flashes every now and then is daringly fresh as well. How many actions films have you seen till date that has the battery going kaput just when a bomb is expected to go off. The villain takes one hard look at it and calmly instructs the mortified henchman to get a replacement.
Hardly ever does a lead performer impress in a film, like Kuldeep does in 24 Hours. The young man is a true natural and as Jagan he is as lean and mean as it gets. He brings in an almost fiendish charm to his portrayal of the wayward youngster that is one among the best that I have seen this year.
Technically the film breaks new ground as well, in that the bare essentials that it has at its disposal are quite modest and nevertheless the end product looks quite chic.
Just when we thought the real thrillers had disappeared into the dusk, along comes 24 Hours with its sturdy barrels raking up a welcome din. The film is captivating and clever enough to keep us absorbed, and in crafting it, Aditya boosts the sagging genre and offers us an adventure ride that lasts for ninety minutes that's indeed worth taking.
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