The Terminator (1984) had it, so did Terminator 2 (1991), Twelve Monkeys (1995), Looper (2012), and Donnie Darko (2001).
Back to the Future (1985) couldn’t do without it, Hot Tub Time Machine (2010) was wriggling and wet with it, and on the Discovery Channel, it’s always about going back in time and killing Hitler, not patching up with a girlfriend, asking that elusive chick out or evade meeting your future spouse. No sir, they want Hitler first, love and sex can wait.
What are we on to in JL 50 is a Sci-Fi and time travel flicks.
Indian time travel movies: A rare history
Indian streaming and movie content has rarely featured time travel as a premise. Too brainy for the mass audience, eh?
Director Shekhar Kapur reportedly completed 75% of Time Machine (1992) starring Aamir Khan, but like many of his movie projects, time, budget, and Kapur’s infamous fickleness ended this adventure abruptly.
Fun2shh (2003) was a fluffy Paresh Rawal comedy where time travel was merely a transitional plot element.
24 (2016), the Tamil commercial entertainer had time travel as the central premise and received good reviews and response for its heady entertainment-formula mix.
Another Tamil time travel comedy Indru Netru Naalai [Today, Yesterday, Tomorrow) (2015) won over audiences for its light treatment.
There are not even ten prominent time travel movies to note, and India records the highest number of movies made in a single calendar year.
That is a mystery, probably as a culture, we love crying over the past so much that time travel and correcting the future, is not a priority for us.
JL 50, undoubtedly exciting plot
It is just another day in the high hills of West Bengal, a group of children are indulged in the game of football.
Gradually, they stop playing to the sound of a growing roar in the sky and the shadow of an aircraft glides over the ground before disappearing into the valley.
Enter CBI investigators Shantanu (Abhay Deol) and Gaurango (Rajesh Sharma), who arrive at the crash site to discover that the crashed plane is JL 50 that went missing 35 years ago.
There are two survivors from the plane, one is the alleged pilot Bihu Ghosh (Ritika Anand) and a yet identified middle-aged man (Piyush Mishra).
Where was JL 50 all these years? How can a plane gone missing 35 years ago, have two survivors on board? If that is true, and the pilot doesn’t seem to have aged a day, then what does that mean?
Is there a larger conspiracy at play, is this a hoax, or can it be incredibly true?
Expectations versus reality
An undoubtedly incredible premise for a sci-fi drama, written and directed by Shailender Vyas. I was hooked in from episode one, the outer plot line is excellent, the main story strands are set up nicely.
The brief four-episode format has a rushed feel to it, that is not the main issue.
The makers got the story skeleton right, but they barely fill in much-needed flesh and blood to infuse JL 50 with life.
Underwritten characters and gaping plot holes litter the series. Simplifying the plot means that JL 50 doesn’t take the audience off their feet on the promised, thrilling journey.
So much to explore, and so little done.
No attempt is made to set up a fictional logic to the premise, no engaging time travel mumbo-jumbo is even attempted – my biggest disappointment with JL 50.
The entire premise ends up like an ‘Expectations versus Reality’ meme. Too little, and not even too late.
The greater mystery
The greater mystery, than the one engulfing the story, is then the loose, half-hearted attempt at setting up a solid sci-fi premise and not working on it.
Was it a budget constraint, or the agreement to wind it up in four episodes, so rush through it, or was it plain laziness?
Great actors seem wasted, especially Pankaj Kapur, good to see him after a long time, Piyush Mishra is in particularly sinister form.
Ritika Anand (also the show’s producer) makes a decent act of her pilot role, Deol seems jaded in comparison, while Rajesh Sharma (wonderful in MS Dhoni: The Untold Story) is dependable as always.
That ‘what could have been’ feeling
That an Indian sci-fi drama has been attempted is admirable, and that’s all to it.
What a waste of an opportunity that way JL 50 is. The promise of it soars high. before story engine failure brings it back to the runway.
You can still give it a try for the unconventional premise and make what you make out of it. If you don’t like it, you can try going back in time.
To be fair, director Shailender Vyas has the potential to make a far riveting, tighter sci-fi thriller, so hope he finds his sweet spot in another attempt.
