24 (2016 film)

2016 film directed by Vikram KumarTemplate:SHORTDESC:2016 film directed by Vikram Kumar
Template:Use dmy dates
Template:EngvarB

24
--

### **Starring**

* Suriya
* Samantha Ruth Prabhu
* Nithya Menen

### **Music by**

* **Score:**
A. R. Rahman
* Qutub-E-Kripa
* **Songs:**
 A. R. Rahman

### **Distributed by**

Eros International
Studio Green

### **Box office**

Template:Estimation Template:INR100 crore

***24*** is a 2016 Indian Tamil-language science fiction action film written and directed by Vikram Kumar. Based on the concept of time travel, the film stars Suriya in a triple role alongside Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Nithya Menen. In the film, Sethuraman, a scientist invents a time traveler watch which leads to a bitter battle between his evil twin brother Athreya and his lookalike son Mani in the future.

The film's development dates back to 2009, at which time it was to star Vikram and Ileana D'Cruz. However, in February 2010, the project was dropped due to the difference in opinions between the director, producer, and actor, facing rejection of the refined script. In August 2014, Suriya agreed to produce and act in the film, with principal photography commencing in Mumbai in April 2015, continuing in Nasik, Goregaon and Pune. The second phase of filming was done in Poland by the end of September 2015. Filming was completed in Chennai by November 2015. Produced by 2D Entertainment, the film has cinematography by S. Tirru. The soundtrack and film score were composed by A. R. Rahman, with lyrics by Vairamuthu and Madhan Karky.

The film (along with a dubbed Telugu version with the same title) was released on 6 May 2016. The film was a critical and commercial success, and won two awards at the 64th National Film Awards Template:Ndash Best Cinematography and Best Production Design. Suriya won the Critics Best Actor Award at the 64th Filmfare Awards.

## Plot

Sethuraman is a brilliant scientist and renowned watchmaker who lives with his wife Priya and newborn son Manikandan. He has devoted himself to inventing a time machine using a watch. In January 1990, Sethuraman manages to successfully complete his invention, although it is only capable of moving back and forth in time for 24 hours. His happiness is short-lived, however, as his evil twin brother Athreya attacks the family and kills Priya to get the watch. He manages to find the key to the box that the watch was hidden in, but not the box. Unable to use the watch and fearful for his son's life, an injured Sethuraman manages to escape with his son and gets on a train, with Athreya in close pursuit. Sethuraman pleads with a woman he meets on the train named Sathyabhama to take care of his son and goes to face Athreya. He manages to trick Athreya into thinking he is carrying a bomb, prompting Athreya to quickly kill Sethuraman before jumping off the train to his apparent death.

26 years later, Manikandan (Mani) is now a talented watch mechanic who believes Sathyabhama to be his mother. It is revealed that Sethuraman placed the locked box containing his watch along with Mani, who grew up unaware of the contents of the box, as well as his true parents. Mani meets a girl Sathya and falls in love with her. Somewhere else, Athreya, who survived his fall and was in a coma, wakes up after 26 years and is shocked to find out that he is now paralysed from the waist down and significantly older. He is cared for by his trusted confidante, Mithran.

Through an incredible set of coincidences, the key to the box ends up in the hands of Mani, who unlocks the box and discovers the watch inside. He figures out its incredible capabilities including its ability to freeze time for 30 seconds, but questions the origin of the watch, and how it ended up in his possession.

Athreya, upset with the fact that he lost 26 years of his life and has become a paraplegic, obsesses over the watch and wishes to go back in time to relive his lost youth. Mithran issues an advertisement offering INR 5 crores (50 million) as a reward for the lost watch. Mani deduces that the creator of the advertisement is aware of the powers of the watch. In order to figure out the truth, Mani uses the original to make an identical copy and along with his friend, goes to the provided address.

At the office, Athreya spots Mani's copy among countless others and realises that Mani has the original watch. He summons both of them to the office and viciously attacks them, kills Mani, and gets hold of the watch. An ecstatic Athreya reverses time only to find out that the watch cannot transport its wearer beyond 24 hours, waking up at 12 am the night before. He now realises that Mani is the only one who can upgrade the watch. Since the day's events have reversed, Mani is still alive and their confrontation at the office is yet to occur. Athreya then decides to convince Mani that he is Sethuraman, and pretends that he is dying from an incurable disease.

Now disguised as Sethuraman, Athreya finds Mani and tricks him to upgrade the watch to enable larger time jumps. Mani manages into successfully upgrade the watch but learns Athreya's true identity and the reason for his parents' deaths after finding an extra finger on a picture of his father shown to him by Athreya. He tricks Athreya into revealing the date of his parents' death and returns to 1990 to warn them. Sethuraman discovers the upgraded watch and realises that Mani has travelled back in time to warn them. Now prepared, Sethuraman manages to successfully use his watch to freeze time, kill Athreya and escape his henchmen. Priya asks Sethu to throw the watch away as she has had enough of the past to which he complies.

Sethu and Priya board the same train as Sathyabhama, and they start a conversation in which Sethu tells Sathyabama that he is a science teacher to which she asked them to come and join her family's school as they want to hire a science teacher. Sethu and Priya, for a fresh and happy start, agree to it. The film ends with a young Mani talking to a young Sathya.

## Cast

* Suriya in a triple role as
	+ Manikandan *"Mani"* aka Subramani, Sethuraman's son and Athreya's nephew, Sathya's love interest
	+ Athreya, Sethuraman's older twin brother who wants to get hold of watch and Mani's biological paternal uncle
	+ Sethuraman, Athreya's younger twin brother and a scientist who invented a time-travelling 24 watch and Mani's biological father
* Samantha Ruth Prabhu as Sathyabhama aka Sathya, Mani's love interest (voice dubbed by Chinmayi)
* Nithya Menen as Priya Sethuraman, Sethuraman's wife, and Mani's biological mother
* Saranya Ponvannan as Sathyabhama, Mani's adoptive mother
* Ajay as Mithran, Athreya's trusted sidekick
* Girish Karnad as Sathyabhama and Raghu's father, Sathya's grandfather
* Mohan Raman as Raghu, Sathya's father
* Sudha as Sathya's mother
* Sathyan as Saravanan, Mani's friend
* Charle as Reddiyar
* Appukutty as Reddiyar's staff
* Harsha Vardhan as Kalai, an electrician who works for Athreya
* Natarajan Balkrishna as Sathya's uncle
* T. S. Ranganathan as Sathya's uncle

## Production

### Development

Template:Quote box
TBA

### Filming

TBA

In all, the film was shot for over 100 days, out of which 30 days of work was done abroad. More than 60 percent of the film involves VFX.

## Music

*Main article: 24 (soundtrack)*
The film score and soundtrack album are composed by A. R. Rahman. The lyrics to the songs are written by Vairamuthu and Madhan Karky. The soundtrack album was released by Eros Music on 9 April 2016.

## Release

The film was released on an estimated 1,950–2,000 screens worldwide. The screen count in United States was 267, with special premieres held on 5 May 2016. The states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana shared 425 plus screens between them.

### Marketing

A game titled *24: Athreya Run* which was created by Creative Monkey Games was released through application distribution platforms iOS App Store and Google Playstore on 1 May 2016.

### Critical response

#### Overseas

J Hurtado of *Twitch* commented on the film, "*24* is about as high concept as masala entertainers come, it never forgets its purpose is to thrill its audience and give them what they paid for. It is a breathless, inventive, romantic, action packed adventure that is packed to the gills with surprises and joy." Mythily Ramachandran, in her review for *Gulf News* concluded that the film was an entertaining ride and went on to say, "The time-travelling film wins with superb and often hilarious performances by its leading actors."

## Box office

### India

By the end of its first weekend, the film had earned around Template:INRConvert in India, with a considerable part of the revenues coming from the Telugu version. At Template:INRConvert, the collections from Telangana and AP were equal to that from Tamil Nadu during the opening weekend. The film collected approximately Template:INRConvert from Tamil Nadu in its entire run.

### Overseas

The film grossed over $1 million in three days on 161 screens in the United States. In the U. A. E. and Australia, the film earned $200,000 and AUD187,000 respectively during the same period. The film grossed $1.6 million in the United States in its lifetime.

## Possible sequel

The film's trailer, teaser and the first look posters featured Suriya as a paraglider. However, the paragliding sequences were removed by the film editor due to time constraints. In an interview, the editor stated that paragliding is Mani's (character played by Suriya) hobby and was supposed to be featured as an introductory scene for Mani. Later, he stated that the deleted scene would be featured in the sequel of the film; planned as *24: Decoded.*
In a scene where Sethu throws the watch away on Priya's request, an Eagle which effected key events in both Mani and Sethu's timelines was seen flying over the watch implying a continuation of the Butterfly effect it caused previously thus forming the basis for a sequel.

## Legal issues

The title *24* was in a legal tussle when actor Anil Kapoor planned an action against the production house 2D Entertainment as the official look and logo of the film title seemed similar to the American TV series *24*, for which Kapoor had bought the remake rights from 20th Century Fox International TV. Kapoor held the rights of the 192 episodes for a period of four years extendable to another ten years. His lawyers defended the case, stating that Kapoor holds one of the highest licensee deals for a fiction format. A legal action was planned against Suriya and his production house 2D Entertainment but was settled in April 2015.

## Notes

<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />

## References

<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />

1. ↑ [TBA Theri to clash with 24 on Tamil New Year?]. *The Times of India* (26 January 2016).
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 [TBA '24' worldwide box office collection: Suriya-starrer grosses 100 crore]. *International Business Times* (24 May 2016).
3. ↑ [TBA 24 (12A)]. *British Board of Film Classification*. “24 is a subtitled Tamil language science fiction action drama about a scientist who creates a time travel device.”
4. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>[TBA "Suriya's 24 to release on May 6"] Check `|url=` value (help). *The Indian Express*. 16 April 2016. Retrieved 16 April 2016. Check `|archive-url=` value (help)
5. ↑ [TBA Did you know, Vikram was the first choice for Suriya's blockbuster film '24'?]. *The Times of India* (15 June 2020).
6. ↑ [TBA Suriya fans celebrate 4 years of 24; call it one of the 'finest sci-fi movies' - see tweets] (6 May 2020).
7. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>[TBA "64th Filmfare Awards South 2017: R Madhavan wins Best Actor, Suriya bags Critics Award"] Check `|url=` value (help). Retrieved 11 July 2017. Check `|archive-url=` value (help)
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `:5`
9. ↑ [TBA Audio launch of Suriya's '24': Actor shares stage with dad Sivakumar and brother Karthi – Firstpost].
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 [TBA Release Counts for 24].
11. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Empty citation (help)
12. ↑ [TBA Suriya's '24 AthreyaRun' game from May 1st].
13. ↑ [TBA Review: 24, Top-Tier Time Traveling Thrills With Suriya]. Twitch Film.
14. ↑ Ramachandran, Mythily (7 May 2016). [TBA '24' movie review: It's an entertaining ride with Suriya].
15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Template:Cite magazine
16. ↑ [TBA '24' fares well at the domestic box office] (10 May 2016).
17. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>[TBA "Suriya's 24 joins $1 million club in North America"] Check `|url=` value (help). *The Indian Express*. 9 May 2016. Retrieved 9 May 2016. Check `|archive-url=` value (help)
18. ↑ Groves, Don (7 February 2017). [TBA Tamil Star Suriya Aims To Take The 'Singam' Cop Franchise To New Horizons].
19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 [TBA Suriya's 24: Part 2 – Decoded confirmed] (10 May 2016).
20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 [TBA Anil Kapoor and Surya may lock horns over American TV series 24].
21. ↑ [TBA We will sort it out: Anil Kapoor on Suriya's '24'] (9 April 2015).

## External links

* Template:IMDb

Template:Vikram Kumar
Template:2D Entertainment