Disregarding its originality (or lack thereof), I really wanted to watch it mainly because of the cast, which includes talents like Irrfan Khan and Konkona Sen Sharma, among others. For me, this movie was an extremely enjoyable thriller. The film was benefited from its taut execution and the proceedings followed a fast pace. Atypically, the movie is devoid of songs and too many emotions, and it is towards the second half when an unexpected story twist turns the film into a conventionally emotional drama of sorts. From then on it was a bit predictable but then again the movie as a whole keeps you at the edge of your seat. It is aided by the good casting, and every actors plays his part very well. Irrfan Khan is fantastic as the evil kidnapper and he is even better towards the end in the flashback scenes. Konkona is very fine and convincingly plays the worried mom in a role that would have been a weepy caricature in the hands of a lesser actress. Sandhya Mridul is outstanding, while Rajit Kapoor and Zakir Hussain play their respective parts exceedingly well. The film's ending is rather sugarcoated and well, it just grew increasingly melodramatic towards the end so no surprises there. Though unoriginal and far from being perfect, Deadline: Sirf 24 Ghante is good entertainment.