A THRILLER THAT BUSTS ANY SENSE OF SECURITY PEOPLE MIGHT HARB
CU Soon requires the audience to be constantly alert to the million things happening on the screen all at once
CU Soon’s ingenuity lies in its storytelling device. It’s a thriller told solely through digital screens of its three protagonists. A couple meets on Tinder and love blossoms through chats and video calls. So sweet and swift is the romance that when Jimmy (Roshan Mathew) asks his cousin (Fahadh Faasil), a computer programmer, to do a background check on Anu (Darshana Rajendran), one nearly overlooks how disconcerting it is. Earlier, it was priests matching horoscopes; in the digital age, it is hackers doing the needful.
Not all love stories are uncomplicated, especially the ones that happen online where personas can easily be altered. CU Soon asks a pertinent question: how much do you know about the person you have never met? How much should one trust? Earlier this year, Kappela, another Malayalam romantic thriller, touched on these questions, with intriguing results. CU Soon, though, is an altogether different ballgame.
“Mahesh Narayanan is capable of anything,” says Faasil, who is also the film’s producer. “I don’t think this would have been possible with anyone else.” Narayanan (Take Off), an editor-director, adeptly handles what is a tricky exercise—shifting through apps and characters and simultaneously ensuring the components of the thriller remain intact. For the most part, he succeeds in pulling of
Searching
A technology-driven thriller, Aneesh Chaganty’s directorial debut follows a father tracing his daughter’s digital footprints to find her and, in the process, chancing on a person he is entirely unacquainted with. this first-of-its-kind experiment in Indian cinema.
Rajendran is wonderful as she projects a shyness and disguises her vulnerability, while Mathew and Faasil also deliver often in front of mobile and laptop cameras. “If you ask me, it’s the toughest exercise I have done in cinema,” says Faasil, known to not be the most social media-savvy. “As actors, we all are trained to perform for lenses.”
The first 45 minutes are taut, with Narayanan juggling through multiple apps with ease. CU Soon reveals how little privacy the world wide web affords its users
CAM
A young girl who makes a living in th world of webcam porn finds her virt identity stolen. As tries to regain cont of her show and lif her copycat’s activ ties push her into dangerous territor
even as it empowers them. The pace does slacken once Faasil’s character turns a sleuth to track Anu and gradually chances on the truth that is troubling, albeit predictable.
According to Faasil, a film like CU Soon should “go to the audience than the other way around”. The format, though, requires the audience to be constantly alert, for there’s a lot happening on the screen—messages, photos, videos. At times, the information overload means one must pause to process it all, especially if they are watching with subtitles. Nonetheless, it is an invigorating experience, one that is likely to make you more vigilant about your online activity.
—Suhani Singh