C U Soon

CU Soon is an immersive experience like no other. This is a neatly written and executed film elevated to a great degree by the right cast and the right music composer. Gopi Sundar’s atmosphere background score lends a great sense of urgency. Unlike in a conventional film, where frame sizes and camera movements can be occasionally used to dictate the emotions, CU Soon benefits from the anxiety-inducing performances of the actors, especially Darshana Rajendran around whom the whole film revolves. I believe this film will finally bring a talented actor like her the much-needed recognition. This film should get a lot of people, especially filmmakers, talking.

I believe there is something inherently fraudulent about films which have technology at its centre, but which finally wind up proselytising for ideas as grand as the evils of technology. C U Soon's greatest achievement may be that to a large extent it avoids this sentimental trap. Despite the techno-wizardry that drives its narrative (most of which, you would realise, is quite bogus) it at once manages to be a picture that the Luddites can enjoy and one that doesn't congratulate the technologically-challenged for making the right lifestyle choice. In its finest moments, the style of the film throws light on a series of paradoxes that our ever-increasing dependence on technology creates.

C U Soon makes up for this by slowing things down, lingering on expressions, and allowing us to observe what’s going on. The action mostly happens in Dubai (with a few darts into the US and Kerala) and the way it unfolds, with the characters uncovering sordid secrets behind smiling faces, it’s all very real and moving. One scene in particular is heart-wrenching, and it visibly allows both Jimmy and Kevin to learn a couple of crucial life lessons—being too gullible is as much of a problem as is to automatically think the worst of someone, but it is also never too late to make up for it. Faasil’s face is a map, and we can see how he absorbs the painful reality of the character he is ‘investigating’, and how it affects him.