A Virtual Take On Mahesh Narayan’s ‘c u soon’ – Starring Fahadh Faasil, Darshana Rajendran, Roshan Mathew
Mahesh Narayanan’s c u soon is an experimental yet gripping film about an online love affair gone wrong. If you have already seen Aneesh Chaganty’s Searching, c u soon can be visually relatable. Though the plots of both these films are different, they share the common ground of a thriller that spirals into an online investigation. Even though the film seems like a bold work-from-home project, it’s not. In an interview, the director asserts it was solely meant to be screen-on-screen film, pandemic or no pandemic. Since using chats, video calls, media players and maps are a norm these days, we easily get accustomed to the film’s virtual experience and go with the story. C u soon is a film which delivers a thrilling story despite being a screen-on-screen experimental film. So here’s a take on a new-age cinema which is completely an on-screen experience.
The film is virtually set in the UAE and begins it’s opening into Jimmy Kurian’s (Roshan Mathews) phone swipe-searching to find a match. The match is soon met with Anu Sebastian (Darshana Rajendran) and proceeds into conversations over chats and video calls. Both fall in love and Jimmy eventually proposes Anu for a marriage. Since the “virtual love at first sight” is too good to be true, Jimmy’s cousin and cyber specialist Kevin Thomas (Fahadh Faasil) is entrusted to do a background check on Anu. And, so the story unravels into twists and turns of the realities that lay beyond the virtual world of c u soon.
The movie is sure to give you an up-close experience with candid performances by refined film and theatre actors. From the emotional portrayal of Jimmy and Anu to Kevin’s engaging screen presence to investigate the truth, the film encapsulated a thrilling yet natural performance from a handful of cast members. The writer-director-editor, Mahesh Narayanan, has indeed done a fine job in making a film which is set around characters in a digital-screen world with browsers and apps as props. The virtual cinematography intricately captures the narrative as the frame floats around the characters and their digital interactions. All the while keeping the audience anchored to the story rather than the many on-screen apps that could have easily been a distraction.
C u soon is a sheer must-watch for all those who enjoy a good thriller and a new-age cinema. This based on true events film can also be seen as a mere reflection of the times we live in right now – where most of us are virtually socializing in a digital hemisphere, while the ground reality has a different story to tell. So, till the next review, (watch) c u soon!
