C U Soon is an absolute masterclass in terms of editing and acting. Mahesh Narayanan takes a simple love story between a banker named Jimmy Kurian (Roshan Mathew) and Anu (Darshana Rajendran) that goes sideways and his cousin Kevin’s (Fahadh Faasil) efforts to piece together what actually went down. And then he expertly adds layers upon layers onto the narrative in an attempt to start a conversation about how technology is both bringing us together and alienating us.
When the first trailer for C U Soon dropped, I found a bunch of similarities between the Mahesh Narayanan movie and the 2018 mystery-thriller by Sev Ohanian and Aneesh Chaganty titled Searching. Both of them use anything with a camera in it to give us a peek into the world of the characters. Both of them involve finding a person who has gone missing and a major conspiracy that’s hiding underneath the surface. And I was afraid that it’s going to be a rip-off. However, after watching this tightly-knit film, I can say that it’s definitely inspired by and a great spiritual successor to Searching, and yet it is a beast of its own due to its focus on problems that are very Indian in nature.
C U Soon is written, directed, and edited by Mahesh Narayanan. The virtual cinematography is also by Narayanan while the physical cinematography is Sabin Uralikandy. The music is by Gopi Sunda, production design by Nazriya Nazim, and makeup by Akhil Sivan. The sound editing by Jonathan Coomes, Mark Lanza, Justin W. Walker, sound recording by Vysakh P.V., sound design by Kunal Rajan, sound mixing by Vishnu Govind, and VFX by Sarathvinu. The movie stars Fahadh Faasil, Darshana Rajendran, Roshan Mathew, Saiju Kurup, Maala Parvathi, Amalda Liz, Vaishnavi Venugopal, and Ramesh Kottayam. The story revolves around Jimmy (Mathew) who falls in love with a girl, Anu (Darshana). One thing leads to another and she goes missing and now it’s up to Jimmy’s cousin Kevin (Faasil) to solve the mystery before things go irreparably wrong.
Mahesh Narayanan’s writing deserves all the applause for taking a simple story and commenting on how we are using technology.
I was pretty fascinated by Searching and especially the way it was written. Because you see, when you’re writing a traditional screenplay, when you’re talking about a scene taking place in an exterior setting, you simply mention that it’s taking place in an exterior setting. When you’re talking about a scene taking place in an interior setting, you simply mention it. But Chaganty and Ohanian explained how they had to completely restructure that process because everything is happening in a particular character’s desktop or laptop or smartphone and via apps open in their device. In addition to that, multiple things are happening simultaneously on different windows in a singular device in video, audio, or text form. So, basically it’s a completely different ballgame and Narayanan has expanded upon the blueprint created by the Searching writers by adding a sense of Indian-ness to it via the way we text or how we handle the internet, instead of going for a generalised international feel.
The distinct Indian flavour extends to the characters as well. From the offset, we know what kind of a guy Jimmy is. The way he texts or the number of times he calls or the speed with which he attends a call are indicators of who he’s. He technically has everything and yet he feels the need to depend on someone or the other. Kevin technically has nothing but he’s dependable. He’s the boss of his own life. He’s co*cky and that does come to bite him later in the ass, thereby causing a complete 180-degree change in his worldview. This change is actually caused by the apparent villain of the story. How often do you get to see that in Indian cinema? Rarely. So, yeah, bonus points for that! The less I saw about Anu, the better because everything about her is spoiler-y in nature. Regarding the text and the subtext, without spoiling anything, I can say that I love Narayanan has both tapped into our insecurities about how easily we can be manipulated by the technology around us and shown us that it could be our way out of incredibly sticky situations.
Mahesh Narayanan’s directorial skills are a force to be reckoned with.
When I watched Searching for the first time (Yes, I am going to refer to Searching a lot because, as I mentioned before, they’re cut out of the same cloth), I was utterly confused because I didn’t know how does one direct stuff happening on a screen. You can direct the humans whenever they’re on-screen. But when they aren’t, you have to make sure that the way they type, what they type, the way their desktop or smartphone looks, where the apps are placed, basically everything happening digitally has to be in line with the actor’s performance. You can’t have the actor delivering lines at a certain pace or pitch and their virtual versions doing something else entirely. That you’ve to control via your editing and the virtual cinematography. And holy sh*t does Narayanan insanely capable in that aspect. I know that the man has around 50 credits to his name for editing. However, as I said, this is a different kind of tango and the fact that Narayan has adapted to it is truly commendable.
The only place where Searching succeeds and C U Soon fails is its score. Gopi Sunda is in a movie of his own. The music is great, don’t get me wrong. It would’ve worked well if this movie was shot in a more traditional way. It even would’ve elevated the ‘oomph’ factor of the film. But here it’s just distracting and out of place. Narayanan should’ve trusted his audience and just deleted the score and focused more on the sound design, which is already so great. The devices that are on display have unique sound effects that could’ve been used to create a diegetic score. Then the emotional beats, that are very heavy and scarring, could’ve had a deeper impact. Narayanan is good so he keeps you engaged till the credits roll. He makes very smart choices. He never lets his foot off the pedal and makes great use of the storytelling restrictions that he imposed upon himself. He has practically set the standard for how Indian filmmakers should depict technology on-screen because holy hell do they’ve no idea how to. And that’s exactly why I can’t forgive him for the score.
Fahadh Faasil, Roshan Mathew, and Darshana Rajendran are simply too brilliant!
Before I get into the nuances of the performances on display and whatnot, I just want to know that how does Fahadh Faasil, Roshan Mathew, and Darshana Rajendran manage to look so perfect in those weird-ass camera angels. Have you ever seen yourself through your front-camera? Have you really? I have. I look horrible. These guys, for some weird reason, don’t. What sorcery is this?! Alright. I have digressed too much due to my thirst. Please accept my apologies. Let’s return to the review.
The most difficult part for all three of the above-mentioned actors, especially Fahadh because he has the most amount of screen-time and is limited to his house, is that they’ve to show what their characters do when they’re in their most personal space. In a more traditional film, the way the camera is used gives a form of realism that allows the viewers to understand that they’re watching a film. In turn that allows the actor to perform for the camera. Here, the camera is voyeuristic and we’re watching them express so much non-verbally. There’s no narration. There’s little-to-no exposition. The camera is mostly static. And yet, these three do a fantastic job of truly getting to you. You do feel their angst, their frustration, their nervousness, their fears, their anxiety, their love, their warmth, everything through that little windows they’re in. It’s truly fascinating. I think it’s their eyes. All three of them have immense control over their eyes and they use it to its fullest potential. I think I should start a petition to urge them to do a masterclass on how to do it so that a huge chunk of India’s mainstream actors can learn something.
Final verdict.
C U Soon is firstly an interesting mystery-thriller that will engage the audience by putting them in the shoes of its protagonists. You’ll actively find yourself trying to decipher the curious case of Anu. Secondly, on a micro-scale, I think it’s a very important story about the massive difference between depending on people versus depending on devices. I think this lockdown has given us an extended course on that already and C U Soon will only cement those notions. And thirdly, without revealing too much, I think it’s a commentary on India and Indians and the choices we make no matter where we are. And overall it’s a magnificent display of acting, editing, cinematography, and direction which raises the bar for filmmaking and storytelling in India by several notches. Additionally, I think C U Soon and Searching will make for a great double feature.
C U Soon will stream on Amazon Prime Video India from September 1.
SEE ALSO: The Boys Season 2 Review - A Bloody One-Two Punch Filled With Realism And Escapism
Cover image courtesy: Amazon Prime Video India
