Sci-Fi flicks don't work well with the local audiences who are more interested in the dishoom dishoom sounds that our macho hero makes while fighting off a ton of bad guys. This is where the movie differentiates itself.
Suriya plays a triple role in the movie, the father, the son and the villain. He is innocent as the father (Sethuraman), mischievous as the son (Mani) and really, really menacing as the villain (Athreya).
Plot
Sethu and Athreya are twins separated by 180 seconds at birth and 180 degrees by character. While Sethu is a scientist who is playing around trying to rewind, forward or freeze time, Athreya wants to put the device to achieve his own ends and is prepared to sacrifice everybody - meaning his brother, his sister-in-law and his nephew if it will help him achieve his ambition.
A quirk of fate puts the spanner in Athreya's plans, he ends up comatose for 26 years only to emerge from coma as a paraplegic. He begins his quest anew to acquire the watch that his brother perfected but which he could not gain, he plans to obtain the watch and go back in time to change is fate
How he goes about achieving this forms the crux of the story and the way Athreya manipulates and plays the people around him is a masterstroke. It sets Suriya apart as a actor. Watching him potray the paraplegic Athreya and still menace people is a treat to watch.
Suriya playing the double role of father and son is a typical revenge drama and you have seen him pull off those roles effortlessly. The revelation was Athreya - in his own words the perfect villain.
Movie Essence
The movie could have used some more backstory for Sethu and Athreya, the first we see of the enemity between the brothers is through a monologue from Athreya, Sethu's quest for creating the time manipulating watch is never explained. He just creates it.
The romance between Samantha and Suriya was a bit too long and mainly introduced to get the laughs and the obligatory songs in the movie. It could have really used some crispier editing to make the movie more tight. The dialogs could have better considering how many times Mani emphasizes that he is a watch mechanic, it starts getting on your nerves and you wish the dialog writer has spent some more time trying to setup the conversations between the characters rather than do a copy paste job.
AR Rehman's music is forgettable. The songs come in mostly as a dream sequence and are neither catchy nor peppy. In fact the music did not even register with me. A pedestrian effort by a composer of ARR's caliber.
The action scenes are understated and the plot has some holes specially when Mani manipulates the watch to add a date/time function to the watch in a matter of hours. It is really something which a smart alec like me could not digest. Just because you are a watch mechanic does not give you the theoretical knowledge to break the space time continuum that even your scientist father could not fathom.
The support characters of Saranya Ponvanna, Ajay, Nithya Menon do their parts with elan but it is a villain Suriya who takes the center stage all the way.
I must make a special mention of Athreya here - I mean it is one of the few instances in cinema where the villain successfully bumps off the hero and there not a wasted emotion behind it. Suriya potrays Athreya with panache, it makes me wonder why don't more of the mainstream 'hero' take on different aspects of characters. First Arvind Swamy in Thani Oruvan and now Suriya in 24, in both cases I like the negative character better than the positive character. The way Athreya moves people around like pieces on the chess board is intriguing to watch, i specially enjoyed the way he played his nephew as a violin to get him to do his bidding while masquerading as his father.
Overall it is very bold and fresh attempt by director Vikram to bring sci-fi to Indian audiences and it largely succeeds.
Verdict
Its worth a dekko, do watch it.
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