The release and success of Kalki has again started interest in films made across time range and dealing with past, present and future and having some known characters as well.
This genre of so-called science fiction got a shot in arm with HG wells- novel The Time machine and later Hollywood films like Back to Future, Total Recall, The planet of apes took it further. In India Telugu film industry was pioneer in creating a successful time travel film and it was Aditya 369-directed by Singeetam Srinivasa Rao-released in 1991.
This fascinating film stars Nandamuri Balakrishna in the lead role and stars Hindi film actor Tinnu Anand who creates a Time Machine. Then there is an evil Raja (Amrish Puri) who wants to collect all fascinating and antique stuff including the prized diamond from Raja Krishnadeva Rai's era. The film takes a twist when Balakrishna along with heroine Mohini enters the time machine and travels across 4th dimension to land in Vijayanagar in the era of KrishnaDeva Rai (played again by Balakrishna).
What follows next is interesting twists and turns which ensure action, comedy, song, and dance.
The film takes inspiration from The Time machine, Total Recall and has inspiration from Bollywood big hit Mr. India and the famous science fiction series of Door Darshan Indradhanush, Space city Sigma but the product really works very well. The direction and script is very tight and not much lose ends. The sequences of Vijayanagar era are best and stay after the film is over. The future scenes look tacky, but the concept is shown well. Balakrishna plays the lead part quite ok and relies more on action and comedy. However, as the legendary ruler Krishnadeva he looks great and acted very well, maybe inspired by his legendary dad NTRs portrayal of Rai in the Tenali Raman movie. Bollywood actors Amrish Puri(who dubbed his own dialogues) and Tinnu Anand are perfectly cast. It's kind of ironical that though the film in parts has inspiration from Shekhar Kapur's Mr. India, Kapur's dream film of time travel-Time Machine (Aamir Khan, Naseer, Rekha, Raveena and Vijay Anand) never got complete.
On the whole Aditya 369 is a pioneer entertaining science fiction Indian film whose impact can be seen later in films!!
