Anil Kapoors 24 Season premiere on Colors

[To set reminder and check TV schedule of 24 click here...]

So Anil Kapoor's  much anticipated  game changer' 24 premiered last night  on Colors television. Anil Kapoor's name appears on the cast and as the producer. Howard Gordon's appears as the executive producer. The first episode introduces central character of the story Jai, the Anti Terrorist Unit (ATU) agent, his wife Trisha and daughter Kiran. Then Aditya Singhania, the young Prime Minister whose swearing-in ceremony is due in 24 hrs, his family and the terrorists, planning his assassination. The story picks up from here and will be revolving around this plot for the rest of the season. The episode and the series is a patchwork of minutes from these people's lives.

Plot

The story's protagonist Jai Singh Rathod (played by Anil) narrates the backdrop to the formation of ATU which he heads. The opening runs a montage of terrorist attacks in India, the Mumbai attack on 26/11 2008 being the motive force behind the formation of ATU. Since the episodes run in real time, it shows event between 12  and 1 am, the characters dealing with their things.

Jai seems to be struggling to balance work and family, his family complaints about him prioritizing his work. He has to leave in the middle of Trisha's birthday celebration because Gill, who is now his senior, is coming to brief the ATU crew. He has received a tip from RAW about the PM murder plot. Upset by Jai's leaving the celeberation in between, Kiran leaves the house to party with a friend, without informing her mother which in turn sets Trisha on a mission to find her. On the other hand the terrorist who has disguised himself as the photographer Max sets out for his mission too. Aditya is onboard a flight with his sister, drunkard brother-in-law and his dominating mother.

The political scion, even though the most important person right now, has his problem too. He is an echt politician, aspiring greatness for his country but his efforts are cut short by his mother who wants him to be precise and not promising much in his swearing-in speech. He then receives a call from WNCC reporter threatening to expose his dark secret from the night of his graduation dinner, 12 years ago and he now has to stop that from happening on the most important day of his life.

The next part shows the famous photographer Max Ferrera who is on board a plane engaged in a conversation with the co passenger,a girl who is way too much interested in his profession. Max is to be the PMs personal photographer for the event and is travelling for the same reason. At this point it appears that Max is the assassin but the plot takes a spin when the girl in his next seat, actually turns out to be a member of the terrorist group that is plotting the murder.The episode ends with her  killing the photographer, securing his id and jumping off the plane bombing it, leaving no evidence behind.

Review

The show's opening visuals seem very apt and play a major role in enjoining the plot to the Indian scenario. The direction is smooth with Abhinav Deo doing a good job presenting  a real time situation. The actors also seem to be doing the work just fine. Mandira Bedilooked very convincing playing  CTU agent Nikita who nurtures a long lost love with Jai but is efficient at managing subordinates and her work well.   However I felt the dialogues needed a little work, there were instances where it felt like the dialogues had been simply translated and didn't fit so well.

The political family bears obvious resemblance to the  real political situation of the country but it lends a sense of credibility to the show. The first episode started very slow, but it picked up pace in the second half and the next episode looks very exciting. In all the show looks good, it is a nice change from the kind of shows Indian audiences are used to. The genre as such is not new, we have had CID from the same for so long now but this one is different in terms of concept and has an altogether new style of direction as its highlight. It will mostly be attracting the young audience and has all the elements to keep them captured.

It will be exciting to see how the plot unfolds so keep watching and post your comments, views and reviews on Twitter-iDubba and set reminder for this thrilling show on  iDubba app.

You can also join the us on iCouch...