“Ten Hours” Film Review

Sibiraj makes a comeback through the thriller Ten Hours, written and directed by Ilaiyaraja Kaliyaperumal. The supporting cast includes Gajaraj, Dileepan, Saravana Subbiah, Aadukalam Murugadass, Raj Ayappa and Uthaya.

The film traces the events of a single night on the eve of Inspector Castro (Sibiraj) going on a holy pilgrimage to Sabarimalai Temple. A missing girl, a murder in a bus full of people and the body of another girl are some of the issues facing Inspector Castro on the eve of his pilgrimage. As the investigation proceeds, there arises the possibility that the seemingly isolated events of the night are somehow inter-related. How Inspector Castro gets to the bottom of the many mysteries form the rest of this thriller.

As is evident from the plot synopsis, the film had huge potential in being a chilling, nail-biting thriller. Instead, the poor writing, plodding screenplay and a longer-than-necessary running time make the 114-minute narrative seem like ten hours long.

Sibiraj is expected to carry the whole film on his shoulder, but has very little to work with, given the weak script and haphazard screenplay. Even these technical glitches could have been pardonable had there been greater care shown to the construction of the plot. Instead of drawing interest and creating intrigue, it is akin to listening to someone give a long-winded account of an event that one really has little interest in knowing.

Consequently, there are no powerful acting performances to speak of in the film, not even the talented Sibiraj whose only requirement from the director was to move the narrative through multiple flashbacks and many failed attempts to provide convincing red herrings. Even the usually talented Aadukalam Murugadass is not given much scope in this film.

Sundaramoorthy KS does very well in the background score, creating tension where the script failed to do so. The film has no song.

Cinematography by Jai Karthik is adequate, but he fails to capitalise on the potential of filming almost exclusively at night.

S Sakthi Saravanan’s fight sequences are good and would have been better appreciated as part of a better narrative.

10 Hours scores 5 points out of 10.