C U Soon Analysis

C U Soon

Written, Edited & Directed by: Mahesh Narayanan
Starring: Darshana Rajendran, Roshan Mathew, Fahadh Faasil
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

In films where the form is experimentative, the filmmakers usually tend to be extra careful with the narrative so that the form doesn't take the attention of the audience, all the time. This film successfully hooks us to the narrative. One of the best tools they used in this film, which even Searching (and some other thrillers too) had used is turning a plot from one to another - in the beginning we think that Anumol's family is strict and abusive, hence Jimmy should rescue her from her house, but the way the mystery unfolds from the scene where they see the CCTV footage, it's riveting. The editing is very tight, especially the scene to scene transitions - although I felt that they could've played around with the pacing to create more tension in some scenes.

The performances were terrific, Darshana crying was so realistic, and the makeup of the injuries was done in a way that whenever we saw her injuries - it punched my gut. Roshan and Fahadh were good as well. The only thing I thought they could've done differently with the form was, whenever Jimmy has a phone and is doing something else, like talking to Jacob, or whenever he is doing something else, they could have let Jimmy's camera stay blank - so that it would have added some sort of tension and it also adds to the realism because when you are in a video call and if you have something to do in between, we usually put our phones aside without caring if we are visible or not.

The film being set in UAE was a surprise and it must have been a brave choice to go ahead with this, because it never felt like this isn't UAE but it could've easily gone wrong because of the logistical restrictions they'd have had because of the lockdown. Kevin's subplot with his colleague, added some depth to the world of the film without it feeling like it's going away from the main plot. It was a bit difficult to catch up with the subtitles at a few places, because in a scene Jimmy is talking on the phone and is simultaneously texting. The film worked for me on every level, making a film like this even without the lockdown needs good talent - and Malayalam film industry doesn't seem to lack it at all.