'96 (film)

Ramachandran aka Ram (Vijay Sethupathi) is a travel photographer. He visits his high school and is overcome by memories. So, a reunion is arranged through their school WhatsApp group. At the reunion, his friends Murali (Bagavathi Perumal), Subhashini (Devadarshini) and Sathish (Aadukalam Murugadoss) catch up with him. Murali hesitantly mentions that Jaanu (Ram's childhood sweetheart) is coming from Singapore.

In 1996, Ram and Jaanu have been friends and classmates in 10th grade. Jaanu is a talented singer. Ram develops a love for Jaanu and she reciprocates. Once their board exams are over, they have a moment with each other where Jaanu asks him not to forget her until they meet again after the holidays.

Jaanu (Trisha) arrives at the reunion and searches for Ram. When Subha points Ram's location to her, Jaanu walks towards him. She reminisces the first day of 11th grade when she eagerly awaits Ram's arrival to the classroom, but he doesn't show up. She finds that Ram has left the school because his father had financial difficulties and his family relocated to Madras overnight. Jaanu is inconsolable and pines for Ram until she completes school.

Ram and Jaanu finally meet and find it uncomfortable to interact with each other, but gradually get along. Their friends talk about Jaanu's married life in Singapore and disclose that Ram is still single and has not moved on. After the reunion party, both go out on a drive. Jaanu reveals how she could not forget Ram and would have traded anything just to have met him once back then. She narrates how circumstances forced her to marry someone else. Then, Ram asks Jaanu if she really does not remember the day he came to her college to meet her. Ram says that he and Murali waited in front of Jaanu's college to meet her and passed on a message through a student. Surprisingly, Jaanu refused to meet Ram and forbade him to contact her again. He returned sadly and never tried to meet her since then. Jaanu is devastated listening to this and reveals that she never saw them at her college and thought it was her stalker who was troubling her. Ram tells that except for the mistake of assuming that she hated him, he knew everything about her life. He also tells about seeing her from afar at her wedding. Jaanu is heartbroken because she felt his presence and expected him to come for her until the last minute. Both feel sad about their misfortune and finally come to terms with everything that happened in their lives. Jaanu expresses her desire to spend the final few hours with Ram before she catches the flight back home.

They go out into the city and then to a restaurant and catch up on more memories. There, they meet Ram's photography students who assume Jaanu is his wife and request her to share their story. Jaanu obliges and narrates an improvised version of the time when Ram tried to meet Jaanu at her college. She tells about how they finally met and made up and have been together ever since and got married. Ram feels awkward but tries his best to play along. The students leave and Ram and Jaanu get wet in the rain. So he asks her to visit his apartment to freshen up.

At his apartment, Jaanu is visibly upset that Ram does not have a love life and requests him to move on and get married and have a family. She finally sings Ram's favorite song for him, a song that she had purposefully avoided singing in school in spite of his repeated requests. Ram shows Jaanu a collection of their old memories like love poems, dried flowers and their school uniforms. They realize that time is running out and go back to Jaanu's hotel to get ready for her flight in a few hours. Jaanu is sad knowing that she will leave Chennai and Ram very soon. At the airport, Ram escorts her till the boarding gate and they bid a teary farewell. Jaanu then gets into the flight and leaves.

Back at his home, Ram finds Jaanu's clothes that he had put to dry the previous night. He folds them neatly, puts them along with his treasured collection of school memories and shuts the suitcase and screen cuts to black.

'96
Soundtrack album by Govind Vasantha
Released	24 August 2018
Studio	20db studios, Chennai Seed Studios, Chennai Rajiv Menon Studio, Chennai
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	34:37
Language	Tamil
Label	Lahari Music T-Series
Producer	Govind Vasantha
Govind Vasantha chronology
Asuravadham (2018) '96 (2018) Seethakaathi (2018)
External audio Audio Jukebox on YouTube
Singles from '96
"Kaathalae Kaathalae" Released: 30 July 2018

The soundtrack album and background score and were composed by violinist-turned-composer Govind Vasantha. '96 was just the third Tamil film he had worked on as a composer and the second to get released, because of the delay of his maiden project Oru Pakka Kathai. The album which was released on 24 August 2018,[25][26] features eight tracks with lyrics written by Karthik Netha and Uma Devi, with one song "Kaathalae Kaathalae" being released as a single from the film on 30 July 2018.[27]

The song "Kaathalae Kaathalae", which was featured in the first 1-minute teaser, was a slower, "ambience version" of a part of the "Anthaathi" song that Govind had produced because "he was in the mood" but was not meant to be included in the film or the soundtrack album.[28] When the teaser song went viral, Govind Vasantha worked on it and made a 3-minute song that went on to be featured in the album as well as in the film. Chinmayi sang all the female portions in the songs since she also dubbed for the lead female character Jaanu, while Gouri TP, who spoke dubbing for younger Jaanu, sang the song "Yean" which features younger Jaanu on screen.[29] A poetry written by Prem Kumar was added by Govind Vasantha to the end of "Anthaathi", which was recited by actor Nassar although he did not act in the film.[17] "Anthaathi", considered the "central piece of the '96 album", was composed for promotional purposes and not used in the film.[30] Govind had reused the song "Yamunai Aatrile" which was originally composed by Ilayaraaja, from the 1991 film Thalapathi, and was released on 15 February 2019.

A reviewer from The Indian Express wrote, "Govind Vasantha creates a soundtrack that leaves me bereft of adjectives to describe how beautiful it is. Govind gives us an eclectic yet symbiotic soundscape, a soundtrack that brims with emotion that touches your soul. There’s love, heartbreak, melancholy, questions, silence and of course love".[31] Surendhar MK of Firstpost wrote, "at a time when Tamil music scene continues to be dominated by EDM-laden pieces and heavily auto-tuned vocals, the OST of '96 comes as a breath of fresh air that touches the soul and mind quite effortlessly with Govind Vasantha's rejuvenating compositions. It would definitely not be an overstatement to call '96 the best Tamil soundtrack of 2018".[7] Sharanya CR of The Times of India wrote, "Govind Vasantha gives us one of the best albums of this year and sets a benchmark for romance in Kollywood".[32] musicaloud.com wrote, "Govind Vasantha (formerly Menon) finally gets his well-deserved big break in Tamil, and knocks it right out of the park!", giving it a score of 4.5 out of 5.[33] Karthik from milliblog.com called it "easily the best Tamil soundtrack of the year (yet)".[34] as did Siddharth K. from Sify who also called it "one unique musical experience".[35] In contrast, Archana Nathan of scroll.in wrote that "barring a few instances of brilliance, the rest of the soundtrack does not leave much of an impression".[36]

'96 was initially slated to release on 13 September 2018, coinciding with Vinayagar Chathurthi,[37][38] but the release date was postponed to 4 October 2018,[39] in order to avoid clash with big-budget films.[40] The film received a "U" certificate from the Central Board of Film Certification.[40] Three days prior to the film's release, the film had a press screening for critics on 1 October 2018.[41] The film's Hindi dubbed version was released on YouTube by Goldmines Telefilms in 2019.[42]

The first look poster of the film was released on 14 February 2017, coinciding with Valentine's Day.[18] A new poster, featuring Vijay Sethupathi was released on 1 August 2017.[43] The first look featuring Vijay Sethupathi and Trisha, was released on 12 July 2018,[44] and on the same day, the makers unveiled the teaser of the film.[45] The teaser received positive response from viewers and crossed 3 million views within 3 days of its release.[46] The trailer of the film was released on 24 August 2018, coinciding with the film's audio launch.[47] The trailer crossed 2 million views within its release.[48][49] Post release, the makers unveiled few deleted scenes from the film.[50]

The satellite rights of the film were secured by Sun TV, shortly after the launch of the film.[51] A month after its release and the successful run, Sun TV had a television premiere during Diwali celebration, on 6 November 2018. This has caused the public, including actress Trisha and director Premkumar requesting the channel to postpone the telecast. Despite that, the channel went ahead with the premiere.[52]

In late October 2018, a month after '96's release, Suresh, an assistant director of Bharathiraja, alleged that he had written a script called 92 and that '96 was based on his own script.[74] Few days later Prem Kumar hosted a press conference and said that he had registered his script in 2016 and also added that he had written a spin-off novel of what happens to the lead character afterwards.[75] The film was also reported to have "uncanny similarities" with the 2016 film Blue Jay,[76] with Prem Kumar admitting to it, although he added that he had already registered his film before Blue Jay released.[52] Director R. Chandru had accused that the movie had similarities with his 2013 movie Charminar.[77]

Bengaluru-based Tamil writer C. Saravanakarthikeyan wrote a book based on the film titled 96 – Thanipperum Kadhal, which was released by Prem Kumar by late December 2018.[78] Inspired by the film, Gulbonda, a Calicut-based art studio created dolls based on the film's two main characters, Ram and Jaanu, which became sought-after by fans and saved the then newly launched startup company.[79] The yellow kurta outfit worn by Trisha's character Jaanu became popular after the film's release and was sold by a textile store in Chennai.[6][22]

'96 was remade in Kannada by Preetham Gubbi as 99 (2019),[80] and in Telugu by C. Premkumar as Jaanu (2020).[81]

• '96 on IMDb