Review C U Soon (Malayalam)

Producers- Fahadh Faasil and Nazriya Nazim

Director- Mahesh Narayanan

Star Cast- Fahadh Faasil, Darshana Rajendran, Roshan Mathew and Saiju Kurup

Genre- Thriller

Rating- ***

Intelligent but Confusing!

Jyothi Venkatesh

UAE based Jimmy Kurian and Anumol Sebastian, both based in the UAE, meet on a dating app. Soon their conversations shift to video calls and after a particular incident, they even start living together. But things go out of control for Jimmy when Anu goes missing and he’s taken to the police station, forcing his cousin and cyber security expert Kevin Thomas to discover some shocking truths about Anu through her data trail.

The film is helmed by Take Off filmmaker Mahesh Narayanan whose experimental concept of using technology to tell a hard-hitting socially relevant story inspired by shocking real-life incidents such as trafficking and invasion of privacy, set in two countries and told mainly through three characters succeeds in keeping you sit on the edge of your seat. The film which has been made entirely indoors during the lockdown phase in May and June instantly reminds you of films like Searching and Unfriended, whose story also unfolds almost entirely through digital screens.

The Kochi based cyber security expert and cousin Kevin Thomas (Fahadh Faasil) is given the job of deciphering if Anumol is fit to be a bride for Jimmy by the latter’s mother. After he approves of the choice,Jimmy Kurian (Roshan Mathew) meets Anumol Sebastian (Darshana Rajendran) on a dating app and quickly their conversations shift to video calls. Jimmy proposes to Anu on one such call that also has his mother as part of it. Their first in-person meet-up is when Jimmy brings Anu home after she says she can’t suffer physical abuse at her home anymore. Things spiral out of control for Jimmy when Anumol goes missing and the police arrest him, forcing his Kochi-based cousin and cyber-security expert Kevin Thomas to uncover shocking truths about Anu through her data trail.

What is amazingly visible in the film is the way we tend to constantly use technology is on full display in our day to day activities, reminding us sadly that much of our lives are parked in the digital sphere. Also, because we all have smartphones and social media accounts, it makes us vulnerable to people who want to stalk us.Though you tend to dislike the complex character of Kevin Thomas, who to a large extent is not at all likeable, especially when he sets out to address his female colleague as ‘a bitch’ in a meeting and is in general comes across as a borderline misogynistic MCP guy,producerFahadh Faazil plays his part to perfection while Darshana Rajendran as the coy Anumol brings in an earnest edge to her role, which is heightened especially when her past is uncovered. Roshan’s character underlines the panic and tension in the film and the actor is simply brilliant in those scenes.

MaheshNarayanan, who is well-known for his editing skills, has brilliantly created a smooth narrative with minimal dialogues, all the screens converging to unravel the mystery in the film for which he is also the virtual cameraman. The film also bears a striking resemblance to the recent Hindi release Khuda Haafiz where a girl is absorbed in human trafficking  in the UAE The Take Off director scores as a director with the way he has handled the highly technical scenes though frankly speaking, it is doubtful whether the average filmgoer will be able to get the nuances of the film which is not only very confusing but also very complicated to the core, because you have got to be very well versed with the computer technology to comprehend whatever is unfolding on the screen