C U Soon

C U Soon
Image Source: Google

Ratings: 4/5
Duration: 1 Hr 38 Mins
Director: Mahesh Narayanan
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Language: Malayalam
Release Date: 1st September 2020 (India)
Streaming On: Amazon Prime

Star cast: Fahadh Faasil, Darshana Rajendran, Roshan Mathew, Saiju Kurup, Maala Parvathi, Amalda Liz, Ramesh Kottayam, Vaishnavi Venugopal, Naveen Nazim, Neeraja Rajendran, Sinu Bahuleyan, Mahi Manoharan, Elsa John, Beljith Singh, Tim V. Mathew, Urmila Krishnan, Fathima Althaf, Lakshmi Venugopal, Baby, Rajesh Vypin, Maaya, Abdul Salaam

Plot: C U Soon is about Jimmy (Roshan Mathew), who meets Anu (Darshana Rajendran) on an online dating platform and decides to marry her. After Jimmy introduces Anu to his mother over a video call, his mother entrusts his cousin Kevin (Fahad Faasil) who is a cyber specialist, to get details about Anu for a background check. 

Kevin gives a clean chit about the girl after a lazy search. And everything seems hunky-dory. But the story begins to take a turn when Jimmy notices bruises on Anu's face and presumes that it must have been her father ill-treating her. Hence, they decide to live-in together - although it is illegal for a man and woman to stay together in UAE without being married. 

It is when Jimmy meets her father to have a word with him, she vanishes. At this point, the film takes the form of a thriller and Kevin’s search again begins for his cousin's girlfriend, who has vanished without a trace, only to discover the dark, shocking truths about her. 

Review: This Onam release by director Mahesh Narayanan is an instant eye-grabber. 

Of late, there has been a lot of ‘made-under-lockdown’ web series, short films, and movies like The Gone Game coming in, with socially distanced actors and technicians working remotely to come up with work that proves that human creativity can never be locked down.

Similarly, this Malayalam film plays out entirely on computers and smartphones. It renders a simple story of love, loss, and retrieval in a socially-distanced format that is not only excitingly distinctive, but also consistently effective.

The story revolves around flesh trade traps where needy young women in Kerala are duped by agents with Gulf jobs. Though the basic storyline resembles Khuda Haafiz, a Bollywood film which was released only a few weeks back. While that went down the heavy-on-action melodrama route, the film ‘C U Soon’ focuses on the relationships going digital. Hence, there is a lot of prying and spying. However, the messages between Kevin and Jimmy on their computer or mobile phone screens are placed in such a way that they do not obstruct the narrative. In fact, much of the plot unfolds through the phone and computer messages.

The three main actors - Roshan Mathew, Darshana Rajendran, and Fahad Faasil play their parts to perfection. Though performing is not easy, when it is just the close-up of the faces of the actors on the screen for most of the time however, they did manage to pull it off marvelously. It is their performances that gives the film its emotional core, of course without which it could have remained a mere display of technical mastery!

As far as the technical aspect is concerned, director-editor Mahesh Narayanan, who is well-known for his editing skills, has brilliantly created a smooth narrative to unravel the mystery. 

The fact that Anu learned to play guitar the same way Jimmy learned to make chicken, through a YouTube video, demonstrates precisely how the internet world can indeed be a remedy as much as it can destroy. 

Overall, if you are among those who have ever waited for the tick-marks on the side of a chat message to turn double and then blue, you will relate to the story, which is to say we all will! The film definitely turns out to be a clever, astonishingly gripping entertainer. A must watch. Highly recommended!