24

The Indian edition of the super hit American Series '24' starring Anil Kapoor as Anti Terrorism Unit (ATU) chief Jai Singh Rathod starts pretty well. We learn about the season 1 plot and get acquainted with the principal characters. It all looks very promising with a lot of plot twists in the first episode and a lot character development taking place. At least the first episode made me feel that the 23 following episodes will be interesting. Let us hope the American producers make sure the quality is maintained as regards to script and direction. As we know that in India, TV programming tends to lean towards the farcical side due to poor quality writing and production values and also because the target audience tend to be housewives. What i mean is that there is a plethora of people who actually watched the original series starring Kiefer Sutherland and in one season it actually guest starred Anil Kapoor. Lets just hope that this Indianized version lives up to the high quality of the original. 1 down, 23 to go. 4/5 for this episode.

I was waiting for a long time for any such American TV series to come to India. Almost all TV Series of India are filled with crappy and endless melodrama. These nonsense family shows are just a commercial venture that have spoiled our TV cinema. Not even a single of those directors even have some respect for this art and thats why no such serials as 24 came out.

YRF Television brought us some good stuff that were having a limited and nice script and casting was also good. One of my favourite was Kismat http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1848141/?ref_=fn_al_tt_7 . These too were able to reach a limited population because of their late timings.

Now, Anil Kapoor, a great Indian film actor, after playing a small role in American TV Series 24 took step to bring us the same quality stuff. It was a risky attempt but he did a handsome amount of promotion and chose the most famous channel for his show. I would love to thank 24 cast and crew for bringing to us this special series and also congratulate them for its success opening.

After analyzing the 1st episode, I can say that the script is a nice one with a good amount of suspicions and thrills with a few 'Bollywood specific' errors that can be ignored. Casting is also excellent with Anil Kapoor, Anupam Kher, Tisca Chopra and many more good actors. I am hoping for its best in the future and may the public like it too.

It is the way to the Indian TV future.

"24" begins with the time duration in which the incidents take occurrence and mind you, one does get a slight feeling that as we are sitting in our couches watching a suspense/drama/thriller TV series, things are happening around us that we don't know of but may affect our times ahead. The notion slips to the back of the mind as the episodes progress, probably because one is so involved with the happenings that the hour seems actually shorter. Relativity, indeed. "24" is a very fine start for an impending paradigm shift on the Indian Television scenario, at least in the Hindi TV series arena. A big, big improvement on the over-used, usual, dominating format of the soap operas and surprisingly, a constant "cliffhanger" consecutively. From the high scale of production to cinematography, from casting to direction - this series is modern and a literal visual "treat". Abhinay Deo (Director 'Delhi Belly') is scoring aces and Anil Kapoor has made good choices, both as the producer and the male lead. Watch it for high octane thrill and a partial sophisticated, partial raw suspense. If you haven't seen it, please do give a try. You won't be left disappointed.

It puts a huge amount of pressure on the makers and generates equal amount of expectations from the viewer's when you recreate a show that has won many international awards including Golden Globe and Emmy and is loved by fans all over the world.24 (international version) is such a show which had created a genre in itself in Action-Drama segment of television shows. Being one of the highest rated and the longest running espionage themed television drama ever it proudly sits in all its glory as one of Americas finest shows ever produced. Recreating such a classic for an audience which is not accustomed to watch anything except Saas- Bahu Opera is a feat in itself but it requires extreme clarity of vision nonetheless and a good production house and (financial backing) and capable actors to adapt an international genre to suit the domestic taste.24 (Indian version) has that clarity of vision, the backing of influential producers and credible actors, but is that enough? Indian 24 as the international version is a thriller which revolves around the political assassination of the to-be prime minister and Jai Singh Rathor's race against time to foil the plot and save the countries future as well as his family from the clutches of terrorism simultaneously uncovering the conspirators behind the event. Each episode is a real time depiction of 1 hour of rathors life, rather the most important day of his life. It uses the similar split screen technique as the original to depict multiple scenes occurring at the same time. The beauty of the original series lied not in the fast pace or the action sequences but in the complexity of the characters, every character had depth and the drama that evolved out of those complex characters was the where the real beauty of 24 lied and I must say the Indian version beautifully captures that essence more or less because it follows the same pattern as the original. There is a to-be prime minister with a dark past which no one is aware of, Rathor has skeletons in his love closet, Nikki (Rathors ex) is still in love with him but is in relationship with another co-worker, rathors daughter is beautiful and irritating a major distraction for rathor from his job and from the central plot for the viewer. All this goes on along with the high level plot to assassinate India's youngest prime minister who has all the countries hopes pinned on him.Will Jai Singh Rathor succeed in saving his family and country both or will he have to pay the ultimate sacrifice? Follow the series to find out. The story/screenplay 24 of is well crafted and is rock solid as it is based on a similar skeleton as the original, I guess that was how the original creators wanted it to be. Overall the show looks promising as it has an ensemble cast of promising actors helming pivotal roles(Anupam Kher,Mandira Bedi,Shavana Azmi,Anil Kapoor,Tisca Chopra etc) in the story. For people who have followed the original series till all 8 seasons you can miss couple of episodes and still you won't lose track but for people who are new to 24 .Watch it and savor the taste as it is definitely not something that you would have seen before.

Indian edition of 24 series makes my day more thrilling. This high budget thrilling series will earn double of it's total invest so there is not doubt that Anil Kapoor is more smarter than Mr. specialist Amir Khan. The Hollywood style filming of this series is an example of next generation Indian television cinematography. Such kind of television shows will improve Indian television as well as Indian cinema. The best element of the show is it's background score which increases it's thriller. I would recommend this show to everyone who like Action and mystery cinemas and shows. I hope other Indian directors will learn something from this show and will make better movies than before