C U Soon

C U Soon (5.5/10)
Genre: Thriller
Director: Mahesh Narayan
Cast: Fahadh Faasil, Darshana Rajendran, Roshan Mathew
Country: India
Language: Malayalam
Year: 2020

1. When I saw it, I thought this is the most innovative Indian film ever made, and then I saw Searching, so no points for innovation because the narrative is inspired. However, it has got nothing to do with plagiarism, but since it is not the first film to attempt such a unique visual interpretation, however, it is the first Indian film to do so.

2. The girl got a phone, but her captives gave her no SIM card so that she cannot attempt to contact anyone, but has access to wi-fi. Any fool can tell - you don't need a SIM card to make contact with the outside world; with a smartphone, a wi-fi connection, you can reach out to anyone, anywhere in the world. I guess her captives are too dumb.

3. The girl meets the guy on a dating app. Now, I may not have any luck with dating apps, but one thing I know is that they require an OTP for registration, and for that, you need a working number. Let's assume she used someone else's number for registration - how the hell her captives didn't find out about it? Oh, I forgot they are too dumb.

4. If the girl's motive was to eventually flee to her home, why the hell she was staying with the guy. Is it to drag the screenplay?

5. In the end, I got confused about whether the film wanted to show the ill-plight of innocent and poor women getting dragged into human trafficking and prostitution, or whether it wanted to convey that some random IT guy can access personal data. Don't know which is scarier?

6. Fahadh Faasil's character is supposedly the good guy, but he breaches privacy without any authority - how is it legit? Then what's wrong with the government tracking our personal data.

It's been a while since I saw C U Soon, so these are some of the plot-holes that I can recall, can be more, but I'm not interested in a re-watch to find out more. I can't like a film, which focuses so much on execution but pays no attention to minute details. Since there is no apparent backstory, some of these actions seem hard to digest.

I'm not saying C U Soon is a bad film, it's an admirable attempt to create something unique, and to conceive this film during lockdown deserves a lot of admiration. Kudos to Mahesh Narayan and the team for their effort. The performances are decent as well. I loved the detailing of the various interfaces of the apps and platforms. These are just my individual opinion, and if you happen to love this film, there is no denial. My expectations were sky-high after all the positive buzz, so I felt a little disappointed.