96 is back in theatres, eight years after Ram met Janu again

Ram and Janu are back on the big screen. The 96 re-release brings C Prem Kumar’s 2018 romance, with Vijay Sethupathi and Trisha, into theatres again from October 9, and the makers have tied it to a neat number: 96 months, or eight years, since the film first came out. The poster says it plainly: 96 Months of 96.

The story barely needs retelling for anyone who saw it. Ram, a travel photographer, and Janu, his school sweetheart, meet again at a class reunion two decades later, and spend one long night circling everything they never said. Prem Kumar wrote and directed it, and its unhurried, almost real-time handling of a love that never got its chance is what made it stick. Prem Kumar’s next, Meiyazhagan, worked in a similar register.

Aadhitya Bhaskar and Gouri G Kishan played the younger Ram and Janu, and Devadarshini, Bagavathi Perumal, Aadukalam Murugadoss and Varsha Bollamma rounded out the cast. Mahendiran Jayaraju and N Shanmuga Sundaram shot the film, R Govindaraj edited it, and Govind Vasantha’s score did as much of the talking as the leads. Kaathale Kaathale, The Life of Ram, Anthaathi and Iravingu Theevai have long outlived the theatrical run.

S Nandagopal produced the film under Madras Enterprises. The re-release gives those who saw it in 2018 a reason to go back, and a younger crowd who only found it on streaming their first chance to watch it in a hall, Kaathale Kaathale and all.