C U Soon

 

Off late I have been trying my best to shed my attachments to material tags especially related to religion, caste, and places of origin, but with regards to the food and creative sector, I am proud to be born to my homeland, Kerala. The amount of quality creative artwork that the land produces is beyond comparison, especially in the current scenario.

We are all torn between the desire for privacy and the fear of loneliness. We need each other and we need to get away from each other. We need proximity and distance, conversation, and silence. We almost always get more of each than we want at any one time. - Andy Rooney

I read this quote while researching online privacy controversies surrounding Facebook started surfacing years back. After watching the Amazon Prime release of the Malayalam movie, C U Soon, this quote came to my mind again. The dichotomy of new-age connectivity can become tricky to an extend that can be mind-numbing. 

It's been a year since I wrote a movie review; coincidence or not, the last movie I reviewed, Virus, was a path-breaking film for the Malayalam film industry considering the storyline as well as the strong performances by such a huge cast. A year later in a situation where the whole world is fighting a pandemic, where most of the movie industries are resorting to passing this phase by releasing films completed and at various stages of post-production, this bunch of extremely talented artists decides to innovate and create such a brilliant movie and I guess that's what makes the Malayalam movie industry different.

 

How well do we “really” know the people we meet in the digital world? Can technology surpass human instincts and emotions? Is there any information of ours online, that a fairly expert hacker can’t dig out? How much privacy do the online features promising to secure our information actually provide us? One is made to think a million such questions while watching the movie C U Soon and long after the movie is over too.

Jimmy played by an amazing Roshan Mathew is our typical Mallu young guy working in the UAE who keeps trying his luck in online dating regularly. On one such swiping right-left instance on Tinder, his profile matches with Anumol Sebastian played by the extremely talented Dharshana Rajendran. What starts off as a regular online infatuation, escalates quickly to a marriage proposal by Jimmy which eventually lets all hell break loose.

When situations start going out of control, Jimmy seeks help from his cousin and a professional hacker, Kevin Thomas played by the actor par excellence, Fahad Fazil; watch out where a sea of emotions are expressed intensely by Fahad using just his eyes towards the end. What unravels during these interactions is a story that will keep you on your edge throughout the roughly one and hour movie.

(C U Soon Official Trailer)

Interestingly, for a movie almost entirely backed up by technology, the backbone remains to be the emotions and struggles of our everyday lives. What is this so-called new generation romance? Does technology change the depth of any of our emotions? Does everyone get a chance for due diligence of the opportunities they are presented with? The makers never let you disconnect from these probing thoughts.

Although, it’s the director Mahesh Narayanan who upstaged everybody else with his talents which proves to be excellent in multiple areas of film making (he also brilliantly juggles the Cinematography, Writing, and Editing responsibilities of the film). To create an entire feature film using an iPhone and making the audience comfortably sink into the digitalized version of storytelling, I don't think can be every director's cup of tea.

Gopi Sundar’s background score creatively amps up the mystery of the storyline. Similarly, an impressive thriller background score in the regional cinema I saw last was by Ron Ethan Yohann in the movie Game Over (do check it out on YouTube- “Game Over- Original Score |OST|”).

It doesn’t goes to say that the movie doesn’t have minor flaws especially how some aspects of the story unfold, but it hardly affects the storytelling that one might or might not notice. Given the current situations and very limited resources, the fact that the team created such a brilliant movie is nothing short of marvelous and the whole team of C U Soon deserves all the accolades. 

Instead of creating fake conspiracies on real-life people which is the latest trend, watch such fantabulous thrillers where the movie will make you create your own conspiracy theories every half hour. 

You can watch the movie online on Amazon Prime. 

Picture Courtesy: Mathrubhumi Online, Scroll, Medium.com, Indian Express, Samayam