This post first appeared on Totally Filmi on August 31, 2020.
Jimmy (Roshan Mathew) meets Anu (Darshana Rajendran) via an online dating app – in fact, all of their relationship is conducted on-line, mainly through Google Hangouts. Anu seems to be careful about what she shares – most of the photos she shows Jimmy are older, though she occasionally sends a current photo of herself, or of her guitar, or books on a shelf. Video chats get added to the mix, though very often Anu stays only briefly on a call, saying she can’t talk while her father is around. Jimmy seems more forthcoming, revealing he’s recently broken up with someone, that he drinks, answering a video call while he’s at work, or sharing videos of himself and his co-workers. Anu finally sends a video of herself playing the guitar, and Jimmy tries calling her. And calling her. And calling her. When she finally picks up, she reminds him that he shouldn’t call her without warning her first, as it’s hard for her to answer.
On one such call, Jimmy surprises Anu by suddenly inviting his mother (and cousin, Neethu) onto the call, telling them he loves her, and asking Anu to marry him. Anu looks distressed, and they immediately switch to chat – she asks if it’s for real – and he says it is, because he wouldn’t have involved his mother if he weren’t serious about her. Jimmy’s next move is to contact his cousin, Kevin Thomas (Fahadh Faasil). In the middle of a call meeting, he answers a text from Jimmy, who sends him a photo of Anu, telling him the news that he wants to marry her. This is followed by a call from Jimmy’s mother – who is actually perturbed about Jimmy’s asking Anu to marry him on video chat, especially since they haven’t even met in real life. Jimmy’s mother wants Kevin to find out more information about the girl, but Kevin doesn’t want to hack into someone else’s private data. Jimmy’s mother is unrelenting, asking Kevin to search social media to find out Anu’s family background. Angry, Kevin calls Jimmy, who wants him to at least find out a little bit of information – Kevin tells him to just find her current call history, but Jimmy drops the information that Anu doesn’t have a SIM card, because of some family issue. Kevin finds that surprising – she has Facebook, a phone, and access to the internet, but she has no SIM card? Anu seems to be tied to her Wi-Fi, and this, on top of Anu’s somewhat secretive nature (she is rarely seen anywhere except under the covers, or in a bedroom), is, perhaps, a sign that there is more to Anu than meets the eye.
When Anu calls Jimmy one evening, distraught and looking like she’s been beaten, he goes to finally meet her, and brings her to stay with him – a big no-no in the United Arab Emirates, where it is not permitted for unmarried couples to live together. But Jimmy wants to help Anu, and he’s persisting in the idea of marrying her. Despite begging him not to, Jimmy goes to meet with Anu’s father, ask him why he hurt his daughter, and tell him they are going to get married. He gives Anu’s father her new phone number (for a phone Jimmy has bought for her), and he feels everything is going to be all right – until he gets what he believes to be a suicide video message from Anu, and arrives home to find she has taken her belongings and has disappeared. In no time, Jimmy is visited by the police, and then taken to the police station.
It’s when Kevin decides that he needs to start investigating Anu’s disappearance that the film really takes off – though I’ll admit that while I suspected what was going on with Anu, at least in part, it was interesting to see Kevin use his skills to follow the trail and get to the bottom of the mystery.
C U Soon is an example of something I’ve admired a lot during this pandemic – the capacity of individuals to pivot from the usual ways of doing things (that don’t work when there’s a lock-down), to finding creative ways of working that allow them to work despite all the constraints. I was a little overwhelmed by all the split screens as characters made phone calls, opened chat, and lived lives on camera – but I also know that I’m not part of a generation for which all of that – in which so many aspects of their lives – are spent on-line in many ways, shapes, forms, and apps. That the film works without completely overwhelming a techno-dweeb such as myself is a feat in and of itself. That said, there were times that I felt there were small inconsistencies in the film – some of which were resolved, but some of which were left hanging, and I couldn’t help but wonder if something got lost in the editing.
I was, frankly, also turned off by Jimmy’s reaction when he finally learns Anu’s story – I won’t say much so as not to spoil the plot, but Jimmy’s first thought is to blame a woman he claims he loves without hearing the whole story of what happened to her, and I found that completely unfair and somewhat misogynistic. Given the film’s ultimate theme, it’s also incredibly sad. It falls upon Kevin to care for a woman he’s only known through tracing her on-line presence to resolve things. At least he had the conscience to be moved by Anu’s story, and to cry for her.