Vijay Sethupathi, an actor known for his varied roles and easy style will be taking up a romantic role for the first time with this week's highly anticipated '96. Not to say that he has never romanced his leading ladies, but so far, he is yet to take up a feature-length film that, from its previews, trailers, and music point at it being a fresh take on the genre. '96 is written and directed by C. Prem Kumar, making his directorial debut with this film. He previously handled cinematography for Sethupathi's comedy Naduvulla Konjam Pakkatha Kanom.
The film also stars Trisha as the second lead and if the buzz is to believed, '96 should turn out to be one of her best-acted roles yet. Apart from the tone and genre of the film, here are a few things that one can glean off the film's promotional material.
Sethupathi plays Ram, a hopeless romantic who seems to have a crush on Jaanu—Trisha. Something of a high school sweetheart pair. The guess is that the film's title '96 stands for 1996- the year they first met.
Fast-forwarding by a few decades, we are introduced to a now grown-up, salt-and-pepper bearded Ram, who still harbours pretty strong feelings for Jaanu. There is a scene in the trailer where her simply touching him, makes his heart beat faster, played off in sync with the music, a stellar soundtrack composed by Govind Vasantha of Thaikkudam Bridge.
The rest of the trailer plays out what seems like familiar romance tropes, but fingers crossed, this does not turn out to be a by-the-books love story.
Come back here for the review of the film tomorrow.
