'C U Soon' review: This gripping, novel experiment deserves praise

While the cinema industry's functioning came to a moribund standstill due to shut theatres and physical distancing measures rendering shoots near impossible, Take Off (2017) director Mahesh Narayan seems to have made the most out of this constrained environment by scripting, shooting, editing, and directing a picture, entirely shot in a virtual milieu, riding on the backs of previously produced similar films like 2014's Unfriended and 2018's Searching. c u soon, starring Fahadh Faasil, Roshan Mathew, and Darshana Rajendran, released today on Amazon Prime Video, making it the third Malayalam picture to have a direct release on an OTT platform.

Director Mahesh Narayanan carries the entire narrative of c u soon through a set of video calls, personal chats, google map images, screengrabs, and everything that a laptop or phone screen can accommodate. c u soon kicks off as Jimmy (Roshan Mathew) swipes right and left on his Tinder account. When he gets a match in Anu (Darshana Rajendran), he takes no moment of hesitation is messaging her in order to know more about the person and establish a possible romantic camaraderie. Predictably, the relationship escalates the way Roshan wants, to a point where he decides to marry Anu. None of the shady, secretive video calls by Anu, who, surprisingly, doesn't even have a SIM card, sparks a sliver of a doubt in Jimmy, who also introduces her to Jimmy's parents. An unprecedented predicament, which prima facie would simply seem like familial ostracization on grounds of a romantic relationship, forces Anu to take shelter for a while with Jimmy. Later, unfortunate events begin to unfold, revealing to Jimmy and his cousin Kevin (Fahadh Faasil) that there, in fact, was is to the strange, mysterious Anu than meets the eye. 

A still from c u soon

First off, Mahesh Narayanan deserves tremendous praise for crafting a deftly made thriller, despite the constraints put forth by the pandemic, which has had a stagnating effect on cinema and the industry thriving on it. With minimal crew and resources, Narayanan and producers Fahadh Faasil and Nazriya Nazim strive to make the most of the actors who portray the characters and the settings the narrative is based at. This is why, in it's 90-minute run time, c u soon just doesn't bore it's audience. A lot happens in it's short duration, and thus creates a magnetic pull on the viewer, prompting us to sit through to realize and find out what will happen next. Almost every plot point is narrated through a slew of screen grabs displaying chats, video calls, satellite images, news clippings, etc. Driving an entire narrative through these elements is an arduous task, and to see an Indian director pull it off, that too, a filmmaker from a regional industry, is a cause for hope for the avid movie-going circle, who have always considered (and still do) Malayalam cinema the harbinger for creative, content-based cinema. 

While Gopi Sundar's attempt at providing an intense score for the film misfires in some parts, in key moments, however, the musician and his tracks are adept. His musical pieces contribute to preventing c u soon becoming a rather sluggish and tedious affair. Mahesh Narayanan, a master editor himself, warrants applause for the way he packs his frames and sequences with the adequate, necessary elements. A lot happens in the screen-multiple tabs are open, text messages are being exchanged, a video call is going on; yet, Narayanan skilfully designs his frame to convey the intended message to the viewer.

Within its short duration, Narayanan also manages to display his skill in slick writing, with his portrayal of his leads in c u soon. Not to mention the credible performances Faasil, Mathew, and Darshana pull off. Faasil is brilliant in portraying Kevin, an IT junkie, whose inquests into the dilemma that Jimmy sees himself drive the second half of the film. The dialogues are negligible but powerful in establishing the layers of the character Faasil plays; Kevin is hot-tempered, impulsive, and borderline misogynistic. But what captures our attention is how Faasil plays out during many plot points- it's the eyes and the body language that do most of the work. Granted, we are talking about one of the most talented actors we have in the industry right now, whose physique and mannerisms have always managed to wonderfully assimilate to the needs and requirements of the character he plays. Mathews proves, yet again, that he is a talent to look forward in the coming years of Malayalam cinema. Somewhere in c u soon, we see the hopeless romantic shades Mathew delivered deftly in Moothon and Kappela, while the skilled actor equally displays the gullible shade of the character in the latter half of the film. Delightfully, it is Darshana, who steals the spotlight on many occasions, with her emotional, heart-wrenching performance. Add to that, Narayanan's character sketch of Anu as a sweet, yet ironically enigmatic individual, and we have a character that trumps Darshana's male counterparts.

c u soon, admittingly, is inspired heavily by the making of similar films produced in this format- shot entirely in a virtual space with absolutely zero equipment. This succeeds in a large manner, by giving the regional audience something they haven't possibly witnessed before. c u soon also manages to incorporate a pressing and urgent crisis in its narrative-flesh trade and exploitation of women in the name of job recruitment in the Gulf, and therefore turns out to be a unique spin on a familiar trope. Despite the issue's sheer familiarity, by viewing a multitude of films following the trope and our exposure to news stories depicting their travails, at the end of c u soon, however, there is no feeling of redundancy; instead, a sense of satisfaction fell on me as credits began to roll. The issue being portrayed doesn't depreciate over time- it still rages on. And that is one major takeaway after c u soon's first viewing. 

Needless to say that c u soon is a sign of changing times, when paradigms of relationships and identities have increasingly become defined by IP addresses, e-mail IDs, Facebook profiles, and never-ending emojis and acronyms. In the naive Jimmy, we see many of our youth, smitten by the first charming girl they see and chat with online. For Faasil's character, an expert hacker, dialogues do not convey how he unravels the mystery behind Anu, it's a series of clicks, prolonged viewings, WhatsApp chats, and skilled keyboard typings that does the trick. For Anu, the modern cyberspace presents itself as an escapist realm, where any person can easily adopt their desired identity, and as an opportunity to break free from the shackles of exploitation.

Inspired heavily from the template of similar films, c u soon marks a defining moment for the regional industry with it's rarely attempted filmmaking style and narrative. The makers manage to tightly pack a gripping and eventful story, laced with a relevant yet oft-repeated issue, anchored by notable performances by its leads and driven by a deft utilization of the resources provided by the vast cyberspace. It's short, pacy story has enough firepower to engage its viewer, and considering the massive restraints on filmmaking today, that is a laudable attempt.

Run time: 98 minutes

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