What are you to do when you fail your high school final exams? In Shakir’s case, he decides
to get his friend’s friend to send him back in time a few months to give himself a copy of
the exam papers, which seems like a good plan if only he would listen to the warnings about
not returning before he leaves.
— Michael Main
What do we do now? Your exams are already over, right?
DEBUT
1989 (Youtube: Shakir Ameer Channel, 29 June 2017).
VARIANTS
Debut. 1989 (Youtube: Shakir Ameer Channel, 29 June 2017).
Self-Visitation: Teen Shakir meets 2007 Shakir, and at the end, he seems to meet an older duplicate of himself who was sent to the 1980s and returned.
TIME TRAVEL ITINERARY (SPOILERS!)
From the traveler’s lab, 28 March 1989 ⋙ to an initially unspecified place, but actually outside the house with the traveler’s lab, 9:35pm, 1 July 2017. Note: The traveller himself goes to 1 July 2017 (incorrectly identified as 1 March 2017 in the English subtitle), shown at the start of the film and again during the credits, where he arrives a few minutes after Shakir first left.
From the traveler's lab, 9:30pm, 1 July 2017 ⋙ to outside Shakir’s house, 20 February 2007. Note: teen Shakir.
From inside Shakir’s house, a few minutes later ⋙ to outside the house with the traveler’s lab, 9:27pm, 1 July 2017. Note: Teen Shakir appears to return a few minutes before he left!
INDEXER NOTES (SPOILERS!)
Confusion—The intent may have been to have the time watch be an <a href='tag-3364'>ex nihilo</a>, but it doesn’t quite scan that way. We believe that Shakir is duplicated when he goes back, with one copy going to 2007 and another to the 1980s. So at that point, there may well be two watches. But both of the Shakirs return to 2017, wearing their watches. Which leaves the question of where the watch came from in the first place in 2017. But to us, the watch doesn’t appear to be in an ex nihilo loop. We also don’t understand exactly when or where Shakir became his friend’s friend’s father, so we are leaving these issues untagged for now.
What do we do now? Your exams are already over, right?
1 Malayalam variant