Ten Hours Movie Review : Standard issue highway thriller

Ten Hours Movie Synopsis: When a missing girl case explodes overnight, an inspector must solve related highway shootings and a murder mystery tied to a bus journey, all unfolding within 10 hours.

Ten Hours Movie Review: If you've seen one overnight highway thriller with a super-cop, have you basically seen 10 Hours? Pretty much, yes. Sibiraj plays Inspector Castro, introduced as the kind of cop who pieces together clues with improbable speed. It kicks off with a missing college girl complaint in Salem, but quickly spirals onto the Chennai-Tindivanam highway when the case escalates - involving cop shootings, a frantic car chase, the girl being shifted onto a Kallakurichi-Coimbatore bus, and eventually, a murder discovered aboard that very bus during a toll check. All unfolding overnight, it’s a setup we’ve seen variations of many times before.

The real issue isn't just familiarity, it's how haphazardly everything unfolds. Clues and plot points seem to pop up out of convenience rather than organic development. Big dramatic moments, like a shocking (or intended-to-be-shocking) shooting of a police officer at a checkpoint, feel strangely inconsequential soon after, deflating any real sense of escalating stakes. If a moment that significant is just brushed aside, why should the audience invest? It feels less like gripping tension and more like plot mechanics going through the motions.

Even Sibiraj's capable presence can't elevate material that paints his character as almost infallibly deductive from the get-go. If the hero has all the answers (or gets them quickly), where's the suspense for us? We're not given much reason to care about the victims either. Instead of letting the mystery breathe, the film leans heavily on flashbacks and exposition dumps, with characters explaining deductions or spilling backstories under interrogation. The eventual villain reveal and motive land with a shrug – too little, too late, and frankly, forgettable.

On the plus side? The solid camera work from Jai Karthik, the crisp runtime under two hours is appreciated, and mercifully, there are no jarring song interruptions. Pity the underlying blueprint feels less like inspiration and more like a well-worn template.

Written By: Abhinav Subramanian