STORY:
Ram (Vijay Sethupathi) is a travel photographer. After decades, his profession brings him back to his native Thanjavur, and he goes to the school where he studied in 1996.
With memories haunting him, Ram catches his friends over phone and arranges a reunion in Chennai. There, he meets Janaki Devi (Trisha), his old flame during school days.
Janaki Devi now lives with her family (husband and kid) in Singapore and comes to India for reunion. As Ram and Janaki meet, their love is rekindled and they also get an opportunity to spend a night together.
What do they decide about rest of their lives? Do they unite or Janaki catches the flight to go back to Singapore? You can find answers to these questions in 96.
ANALYSIS:
Kudos to director C Prem Kumar for kindling the hidden love in the hearts of most of the audience with 96, a beautiful love story starring Vijay Sethupathi and Trisha in lead roles.
Strongly backed by two power-house performers (VS and T), Premkumar takes us back to our school days and makes us revisit our past. And what more? He uses Ilayaraja songs in a unique way to enhance this nostalgia.
Vijay Sethupathi comes as a lover boy and he performs with ease. Trisha, the ageless beauty that she is, scores well with minute emotions. The rest of the cast including Devadarshini, Bagavathi Perumal, Aadukalam Murugadoss, Janakaraj and Kavithalaya Krishnan have performed well.
Those who have played the younger Ram and Janu — Adithya Bhaskar (M S Bhaskar’s son) and Gouri Kishan — are as good as Vijay Sethupathi and Trisha.
The two important highlights of the movie are music by Govind Vasantha and cinematography by Mahendran Jayaraju and Shanmuga Sundaram. These talents have gelled well with the vision of Premkumar.
While the first half is superb, the second half lags a bit. But this flaw cannot stop 96 from taking the audience a trip down the memory lane.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
96 : Love is evergreen
Director: C. Prem Kumar
Producer: Nandagopal
