The Kannada film Blink, directed by Srinidhi Bengaluru, has a truly unique storyline, unlike anything I’ve seen before in Indian cinema, blending elements of time travel and Greek mythology. It also pays tribute to folk artists and theater performers as well. The film centers around Apoorva, who is insecure about his future. The plot shows us his past life, where after meeting a mysterious man and experimenting with time travel, Apoorva discovers the shocking truth about his father, which changes everything he thought he knew. Even though we know that Blink is Srinidhi Bengaluru’s debut project, how he has blended past and present with mystery, drama, and sci-fi elements is truly something else. While the plot of the Kannada film seems quite complex, I’ll try to explain it as clearly as possible in Blink’s explainer.
Spoilers Ahead
Who did Apoorva agree to do the experiment?
It’s the year 2021 in Bangalore, where we meet Apoorva, the main character of the movie around whom the story revolves. As we get to know him, we learn that Apoorva doesn’t have much money and often relies on his girlfriend, Swapna. She loves him deeply and helps him as much as she can. Apoorva, however, is very uncertain about his future. He takes on any kind of job, whether it’s writing scripts or editing, while he waits to pass his exams. He is also part of a theater group with Swapna. Everything seems to be going normally until Apoorva starts seeing a strange old man everywhere he goes. This man seems to know everything about his parents and tells Apoorva that his father is still alive. Apoorva until now had always believed that his father left when he was five years old. But now after meeting him, he begins to think that maybe his father is still alive and that he needs to find him. The situation gets even more confusing when Apoorva starts seeing his doppelgänger wherever he goes. He even sees that the clone is spending time with his girlfriend. Apoorva fails to understand any of it. Is it all an illusion, or is there something more?
One day, Apoorva gets an offer to earn thirty thousand rupees per month for a two-month-long project. Naturally, he is excited, thinking that this job will help him until he finds a permanent one. On his way to the job, he runs into his own doppelgänger, who warns him not to go, saying it’s a trap. Apoorva is scared and confused but decides to go anyway. When he arrives, he finds that the person offering the job is the same old man who has been following him. The old man tells Apoorva that he will pay him a hefty amount of money if he participates in his experiment. He knows that Apoorva has the unique ability to keep his eyes open for more than thirty minutes, which is crucial for the experiment. Apoorva is supposed to use an eye drop called Vremya, along with a time machine and a special clock, to travel back in time up to thirty years. This way, Apoorva can find out what happened to his father. Although skeptical at first, Apoorva agrees because he wants to know the truth.
What did Apoorva find out about his parents?
As Apoorva begins his time-traveling journey, he first goes back to the year 2001, the day his father supposedly died. For years, he believed his father was a lying, cheating scammer who abandoned the family. However, when he travels back to the day he turns five—the day his father disappeared—he discovers that his father, Gopal, jumped from a bridge into the Shantala river at Rayadurga. Even though through time travel Apoorva tried to save him, he couldn’t because it happened at 3 PM, a time known as the “black hours,” when he had to go back to his present time. Apoorva thought Gopal was his father, but that was far from the truth. The real story begins with Arivu, a history professor who arrived in Rayadurga in 1996 through time travel. Arivu is the same man who instructed Apoorva to perform the time-travel experiments in the present timeline. When Arivu arrived in the village, he met and fell in love with Devaki, and he got married to her. She was a close relative of Gopal and Yashoda. Apoorva always believed Gopal and Yashoda were his real parents, but this was not true. Gopal and Yashoda couldn’t have children of their own.
As Arivu’s time on the 1996 timeline expired, he had to return to his own time, leaving a pregnant Devaki behind. Gopal witnessed Arivu vanish into thin air, and after seeing his machines, he got to know all about time travel. Devaki’s health deteriorated, and she died after giving birth to Apoorva. So, Arivu and Devaki were Apoorva’s real parents. After they left, Gopal and Yashoda raised Apoorva, keeping the truth hidden all these years. Apoorva eventually meets Gopal in the present timeline, who has become a famous sci-fi writer. Gopal wrote a book called “Aganthuka,” where the main character is named Arivu—the same Arivu who is actually Apoorva’s father. The theater group, including Apoorva, had read this book without realizing it was the true story of Apoorva’s life. The man Apoorva thought was his father had been wandering like a vagabond and died before Apoorva in relief, knowing that Apoorva was still alive and well.
What was Apoorva’s real identity?
But this isn’t where the story ends, and the reality is even more shocking. Actually, Arivu is the son of Devaki, and Apoorva slept with Devaki to give birth to himself. I know it’s a lot to take in, but let me explain. Learning the truth was too much for Apoorva. Realizing that all these years he didn’t know who his real parents were left him distressed. He decided to return the time machine and eye drops to the professor, only to discover an even more troubling truth. The professor told him that no matter how much he tried to escape, he couldn’t run from the truth. If he did, he would lose everyone he cared about, from his mother to his girlfriend Swapna, and live a lonely life. The professor revealed that, in 2034, Apoorva would meet a man named Arbindu Sen in Kolkata. Arbindu would give him a ring essential for time travel, and until the ring breaks, he cannot return to his original timeline because once the ring is attached it’s a one way ticket.
During his time-traveling journey, when Apoorva went back to 1996, in search of humanity and love because he felt all alone, he invented a new identity for himself. where Apoorva transformed himself into Arivu with new clothes, specs, and wig, and as the ring broke he stayed the same in Arivu’s identity. It was then that he married Devaki and fathered the present-day Apoorva. However, the battery of the ring eventually died, forcing Arivu to travel back in time. As Arivu, he reached the year 2034, where he had already seen everything as they are the same person. He even traveled to 2054 to try and stop Apoorva from transforming into Arivu, but failed. He tried to kill himself in 2054. But that could not have changed the past until they two meet and kill each other. This is why the professor had to meet Apoorva in the present timeline of 2021—to end this cycle and prevent it from happening again. The only solution left was for Arivu, the professor, to kill Apoorva to stop the endless loop of time travel and its consequences. So, what happened ultimately?
In Blink‘s ending, Apoorva decided to take one day from Arivu, the time traveler, before losing everything. He spent this day with Swapna, his girlfriend, and it turned out to be some of the best time he had spent with her. But here he discovered another shocking truth. Arivu had once met a woman named Revathi during his time-traveling journey. Revathi had wanted to commit suicide, but Arivu stopped her with the help of his time-traveling ring. On their date, Swapna showed Apoorva a ring, saying it had been with her mother all these years. This indicated that the ring belonged to Revathi, meaning Revathi was Swapna’s mother. This revelation was too much for Apoorva. First, he learned that he had unknowingly slept with his mother, Devaki, and now he found out that Swapna and Revathi were connected to Arivu. Feeling like the Greek mythology character Oedipus Rex, who unknowingly fell in love with his mother, Apoorva decided he had to end it all. He first went to the professor and killed him, then later killed himself to punish himself for his past sins, similar to Oedipus Rex. This act indicates that the past ties between Arivu and Apoorva are now broken. Arivu won’t meet Devaki and fall in love anymore, so Apoorva won’t be born. Since Arivu won’t be there to save Revathi from committing suicide, she will die, meaning Swapna will never exist. Thus, in the current timeline, they are nonexistent characters. I think this is symbolized by the two main leads wearing masks at the end of Blink movie, showing that they no longer exist in this altered reality.
