24; Time travel in Tamil film industry

I have seen several takes on time travel in short stories, novels, films and anime, but 24 is different from all those. Usually, the central theme is the adverse effects of changing the past. Given the dearth of science fiction films in India, I was happy to see the 2015 Tamil film Indru netru naalai, which did a decent job in portraying this theme. 24 does not deal with such deep moral or philosophical questions, but their take on time travel was very interesting.

According to the film, when you travel in time you go into your body at that time. So, there will never be two instances of the same person, unlike many other portrayals of time travel. Basically, only the memories are different. In some sense, this is similar to time travel stories where you can only send messages to the past of future. If you are interested in this theme, I highly recommend the anime Stien's gate.

This mode of time travel limits the extent to which you can travel in time, namely, you should be alive at that time. What happens if you travel to a time before you were born? What happens if you travel to a time after your death? These are some natural questions and the movie offers no answers. The movie just uses the device to tell an above average story.

24 is also a movie about extreme coincidences. The coincidences in the film are even more unbelievable than time travel. This is another sense in which the film is a science fiction or should I say, probability fiction! The eagle is the hero of this probability fiction - sorry, you have to watch the film to get that.

The comedy in the film is fine, but could have been much better. This is an aspect in which I think Indru netru naalai did much better. The romance in 24 is boring, the cliche of hero tricking the heroine into loving him.

Overall, 24 is an above average film and worth a watch. While you are at it watch Indru netru naalai as well, I enjoyed that film even more.

By Source (WP:NFCC#4), Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50244045

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