Online Indian streaming platform Aha Video has been churning out an interesting blend of popular and critically acclaimed content. The list includes films and shows such as ‘11th Hour’, ‘Thank You Brother!’, ‘Krack’, ‘Zombie Reddy’, ‘Naandi’, ‘Color Photo’, ‘Forensic’, and ‘Sulthan’ – to name a few.
And now, the streaming platform is set to release an intriguing mystery thriller film titled ‘PlayBack’, which is being described as India’s first movie based on cross-time connection. From the film’s trailer and the premise, ‘PlayBack’ apparently revolves around an inadvertent telephonic cross-connection between two individuals who exist in different time periods. One is from the year 1993 and the other one apparently from the present.
While the film’s precise setting, plotline, and treatment is not something that has been executed before by an Indian filmmaker before. However, the underlying premise is reminiscent of a Hollywood science fiction thriller film called ‘Frequency’, which released in the year 2000. The film featured acclaimed actors Dennis Quaid (‘Innerspace’, ‘Traffic’, ‘The Day After Tomorrow’) and Jim Caviezel (the lead character of the television show ‘Person of Interest’).
‘Frequency’ was a different kind of time travel movie which followed an NYPD police detective (played by Jim Caviezel), who accidentally connects with his deceased father (played by Dennis Quaid), who had died 30 years ago, through a cross-time radio frequency by using his late father’s radio device.
When the detective, while interacting with his father, tries to change the past by warning his father about his impending death, it causes a butterfly effect. The father-son duo then team up (from different timelines) to use their unique situation to catch a serial killer from the past. Super interesting plot, isn’t it?
Although this is just speculation, but in case we are guessing in the right direction, then, amongst other things, the radio device has been ostensibly replaced by a wired telephone in the upcoming film ‘PlayBack’. However, besides the modus operandi of time-travel used in ‘Frequency’, ‘PlayBack’ seems to have followed a dissimilar route pertaining to other aspects of the film.
It is admirable that Indian filmmakers are now attempting to execute complex concepts like time travel for the screen. ‘PlayBack’ is scheduled to premiere on the popular Aha streaming platform from May 21, 2021, onwards. We are eagerly looking forward to watching the film.
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