Saurabh Shukla's Pleasant Fare
By MovieTalkies.com, 30 August 2012
2.5 / 5
I M 24 Review In Brief
An above 40 bald writer lies about his age and appearance to an internet friend and lands in trouble when she decides to meet him…
I M 24 Review Verdict
Saurabh Shukla comes up with a different and pleasant story, though the climax is tad predictable…
I M 24 Review Story Plot
Shubendu (Rajat Kapoor) is a 42 year old honest to a fault writer, who shares a room with Gagan (Ranvir Shorey), a struggling actor. Whereas Gagan is a smart alec, who doesn't mind lying to get his work done, Shubendu is someone who believes that the truth shall always prevail. The balding writer has no love life as such because of his poverty and looks and one day, inspired by Gagan, Shubendu lies about his age to a Delhi based young girl Kanak (Manjari Fadnis) on an internet friendship site. As days go by, Shubendu and Kanak become good friends.
However, things get complicated when Kanak tells Shubendu about coming to Mumbai for a beauty contest and expresses a desire to meet him, as she has never seen him before (though Shubendu knows what Kanak looks like because of her webcam). A flustered Shubendu has to now keep lying to maintain the pretense of a rich and successful writer and how the erstwhile honest writer gets trapped in his web of lies is what the movie is all about.
I M 24 Review Performances
Without exception, every actor in the film, right from Rajat Kapoor to Ranvir Shorey to Saurabh Shukla to Vijay Raaz, have put in a decent performance, specially Raaz, who makes you guffaw with delight every time he comes on screen.
I M 24 Review Direction
Saurabh Shukla definitely comes up with a pleasant surprise with this film. In a world, where film heroes are supposed to be good looking, if nothing else, Shukla tells a heart-warming story of a 42 year old bald writer, who must lie about his appearance to enjoy female companionship. Though the film is a comedy, it does touch your heart-strings at times when Shubendu laments the absence of love or female companionship in his life, because of his age and baldness. However, on the flip side, the film does suffer from a predictable climax and Shukla does tend to veer off on a tangent to explore the love life of Gagan and his struggles as an actor, which could have been avoided, as the story is about Shubendu and his 'experiments with truth', so to say…
I M 24 Review Final Word
If you want to enjoy a simple, sweet story with a dash of humour, I M 24 is not a bad flick to watch…