Recommendations for Avengers fans: South Indian films that have explored time travel

*To avoid spoilers, skip to second para if you haven't watched Endgame

The world is swooning over the latest film from Marvel Studios, Avengers: Endgame. In this final installment, the superheroes come together to defeat Thanos and bring back all those he had killed using the Infinity stones in the previous film. And how do they do that? Time travel, of course. 

The film has become a major blockbuster across the globe and India is no exception. In fact, online ticket booking portal BookMyShow sold over 1 million tickets in just over a day for the film. But time travel, as they acknowledge in Avengers: Endgame, isn’t a new idea to find its way to cinema. There have been several Hollywood films on the concept and they find mention in Avengers: Endgame too.

But though science fiction isn’t a genre that south Indian cinema has explored much, there have been a few films which have been based on the idea of time travel and parallel universes. Here’s a look at some of those experimental films which the Avengers (and you) should check out.

Aditya 369 (1991): Written and directed by Singeetham Srinivasa Rao, the Telugu film has Nandamuri Balakrishna and Mohini in the lead roles. It was also dubbed in Tamil as Apoorva Sakthi 369 and in Hindi as Mission 369. Balakrishna and Mohini play a couple who accidentally get into a time machine built by the latter’s father, a scientist (Tinnu Anand). They visit both the past and the present, Krishnadevaraya’s empire as well as the apocalyptic world after the Third World War. There is also a plot line involving the robbery of a diamond belonging to the Krishnadevaraya empire. In 2016, it was reported that Singeetham Srinvasa Rao was planning to make a sequel for the film with Mokshagna Teja, Balakrishna’s son, playing the lead.

Irandam Ulagam (2013): This Selvaraghavan Tamil film is about parallel worlds and people from one life travelling to another through an inter-planetary portal which opens up briefly. Starring Arya and Anushka Shetty, the film saw the two actors playing ordinary people on Earth and citizens of a warrior clan in another life, on another planet. Their lives intermingle when the portal opens up. While the film was appreciated for its visuals and technical brilliance, it was criticised for not doing enough to move the audience with the love stories that it sought to tell.

Indru Netru Naalai (2015): Directed by R Ravikumar, this Tamil film was about what can happen if a time machine falls in the wrong hands. A scientist (Arya) invents a time machine and sends it back to the “past”, the year 2015. Though the machine is meant to return to him in 40 seconds, it does not. Instead, it falls into the hands of three people, one of whom ends up in a coma due to an electric shock. The other two exploit the time machine to improve their own fate – the astrologer (Karunakaran) goes back in time to find out how his clientele had lost/misplaced certain items they’ve come to him to find, and the lovelorn boyfriend (Vishnu Vishal) uses it to go into the future and find out stock market prices to impress his girlfriend’s industrialist father. The comedy film received good reviews and was appreciated for how effectively it had used the idea of time travel.

24 (2016): This Tamil film with Suriya, Samantha and Nithya Menen in the lead was directed by Vikram Kumar. The film had Suriya playing three roles – scientist Dr Sethuraman (who invents a time machine that will transport a person back and forth in time for 24 hours), his evil twin Athreya, and Dr Sethuraman’s son Manikandan, who is a watch mechanic. The story is about Athreya’s wish to travel back to the past and save himself from an accident that left him seriously injured for life. In 2016, it was announced that Suriya would make a sequel to the film titled 24 Decoded.

Tora Tora (2017): Directed by Harsh Gowda, this Kannada film is about a bunch of students who use a time machine to go back in time to… steal the remote of an air-conditioner, as absurd as that might sound! A comedy of errors is the result. The film had Manju Heddur, Saniha Yadav, Pooja Raju and other newcomers in the cast. It received mostly poor reviews for the amateurish screenplay and performances.

Tamizh Padam 2 (2018): This Tamil film which parodied several well-known films from the industry also had time travel as part of its plot. Directed by CS Amudhan, the film had Shiva (Shiva) go back in time to 1492 BC to win a dance contest that would change the course of events and therefore the present. How does he get to do this? He gets the watch from the watch mechanic of 24! The film enjoyed a massive opening, getting the coveted early morning slots which are usually reserved only for top actors in the industry.

Tick Tock (yet to be released): The film, directed by Vivek Anirudh, was announced in 2016 and created quite a stir because Malayalam cinema has not explored time travel as yet. The film has Tovino Thomas in the lead and the first look was also unveiled. However, it remains to be seen when Tick Tock will release and who the others in the cast are. In an interview, the director had said that though Tovino’s character will be able to travel through time, there was no time machine in the film.