Dhananjaya scores again in crime drama

Twenty One Hours

Kannada (Theatres)

Director: Jaishankar Pandit

Cast: Dhananjaya, Rahul Madhav, Sudev Nair, Durga Krishna, Dinesh Baboo

‘Twenty One Hours’ has Dhananjaya as a crime branch police inspector unofficially assigned the task of tracing a high-profile married woman from Kerala. As Srikanth, the inspector, is expected to keep the missing case and his subsequent investigation a secret from the media and the department, he keeps two couples and two others separately in a hotel for interrogation.

Is Madhuri Menon, the missing woman, alive or dead? Who among the six masterminded the incident? What will be Madhuri’s fate? Will Srikanth live up to the expectations of his mentor?

Jaishankar Pandit, the director, mostly answers these questions in an interesting manner. The mystery thriller drama has ample suspects, leads, motives, turns and twists throughout. The narrative keeps the audience guessing till the end.

An unexpected twist towards the climax grants some space for intensity in the overall cinematic experience. However, sequences leading to the convincing climax fail to build up the right amount of excitement.

The climax, if logic and reasoning are applied, appears somewhat absurd. 

Despite having a solid ensemble cast, the flick touted to be a bilingual movie, neither looks like a Kannada nor a Malayalam outing. Poor editing is clearly evident as lip-sync errors occur in many scenes.

A non-linear narrative technique and effective flashbacks complement the genre.

Rupert Fernandes elevates the tone of the flick. Dhananjaya is once again at his best proving his acting skills.

Rahul Madhav, Sudev Nair, Durga Krishna and Dinesh Baboo have done justice to their roles. By and large, this slow-paced police mystery thriller glues the audience to their seats till the end.