It was during one of those sleepless nights like today’s that I watched the movie 96. The story or the songs or the few scenes from the trailer didn’t really impress me. But when I watched the movie fully, there was one thing that I could identify with – nostalgia!
There was the lead character Ram who was still holding on to his time and memories with Janu so close to his heart and hadn’t fully moved on from the past.
There was Janu who, though seemed to have moved on with her life for all practical purposes and appeared to have accepted all that had happened and not happened, was still holding on to those memories and feelings as fervently as Ram.
Yes, there were some flashbacks that were boring to me and there were way too many tears in the present scenes and the love story in itself didn’t seem any special. Yet, there was this one thing that made me keep watching the movie till the end and even get reminded of it at random moments – the portrayal of nostalgia!
Be it Ram excitedly recollecting the places in Thanjavur, the place where he spent his childhood, from the passenger seat of the car or stepping inside his old school or all the students of the class excitedly catching up wih each other after so many years or be it the class reunion or be it the fond reminiscences of the past by Ram and Janu, it was that nostalgia written all over the movie that appealed to me more than anything else.
Of course, the cinematography was superb, there was this enjoyment of watching Madras on screen and Vijay Sethupathi was excellent as usual!