C U Soon (Malayalam; 2020)
The human imagination has no boundaries. Even at a time when all of the movie-making industry has come to a grinding halt, storytellers still managed to squeeze out a full-length feature film.
Who cares if there is a lockdown or a need for social distancing? There are smartphones and all the drama online in social media. Why look far? Necessity is the mother of all inventions and desperate times spur innovations.
This Malayalam offering was made utilising the i-phone and screens of the computer. The whole film was shot in two rooms and with minimal human contact. The storytelling involves a lot of reading off WhatsApp messages, Facebook posts and emails as well as eavesdropping on video calls.
Kudos to the director who managed to keep the attention of the audience. At the same time, they maintained the suspense of the story.
Jimmy, a bank executive in Dubai, hooks with Anu on Tinder. They get along quite well and even contemplate marriage in such a short time. Jimmy gets his cousin, Kevin, to do a background on her. Everything is okay, and so is Jimmy's mother. Just then, Anu makes a frantic call for help after being beaten up. Slowly things become bizarre as she is given asylum with the Emirates police hot on Jimmy's trail. Like an onion peel, the story slowly unveils, showing us the vulnerability of our identities in cyberspace and the complicated web of deceit that humans are masterminds. Even though a lot of the story is told in texts and acting merely involves facial expressions, not once does the audience feel bored.
A few learning points from the movie. It is no secret anymore that many educated Indian girls are duped into working as maids in the Arab countries but end up as call girls. These type of shenanigans not only in Godless nations but even in states that proclaim to upholds God's law on Earth.
Proponents of Islamic Law insist that Islamic brand of justice and jurisprudence will not affect the Non-Believer way of life. Apparently not as seen in this film of the legal system in the Emirates. Co-habitation of an unwed couple, even of non-Muslims, it seems is a serious crime. The enforcers of the law would say this is the law of our land, the others have to just oblige. On the other hand, it does not work the other way around. Immigrants and refugees to Non-Muslim lands (Dar al Harb) are hellbent on implementing sharia law in the newfound land that gave them a helping hand out of their self-created pit of hopelessness.
Maybe it is just this particular movie, but I get the vibe that the police in Dubai creates the element of fear in the eyes of the public, particularly the foreigners/expatriates. Perhaps, the director is generalising policemen as the Indian population's perception of the police. If indeed, justice is carried out to the true calling of the religion, should the citizens be empowered, not being fearful of getting embroiled with police?
The final take-home message is that despite all the adversities that the human race may be exposed to, we will rise to the occasion to stamp our dominance. No matter what the nihilistic naysayers may say about the dystopian future that they paint, we will never perish. We will always find a way to stay relevant.
The human imagination has no boundaries. Even at a time when all of the movie-making industry has come to a grinding halt, storytellers still managed to squeeze out a full-length feature film.
Who cares if there is a lockdown or a need for social distancing? There are smartphones and all the drama online in social media. Why look far? Necessity is the mother of all inventions and desperate times spur innovations.
This Malayalam offering was made utilising the i-phone and screens of the computer. The whole film was shot in two rooms and with minimal human contact. The storytelling involves a lot of reading off WhatsApp messages, Facebook posts and emails as well as eavesdropping on video calls.
Kudos to the director who managed to keep the attention of the audience. At the same time, they maintained the suspense of the story.
Jimmy, a bank executive in Dubai, hooks with Anu on Tinder. They get along quite well and even contemplate marriage in such a short time. Jimmy gets his cousin, Kevin, to do a background on her. Everything is okay, and so is Jimmy's mother. Just then, Anu makes a frantic call for help after being beaten up. Slowly things become bizarre as she is given asylum with the Emirates police hot on Jimmy's trail. Like an onion peel, the story slowly unveils, showing us the vulnerability of our identities in cyberspace and the complicated web of deceit that humans are masterminds. Even though a lot of the story is told in texts and acting merely involves facial expressions, not once does the audience feel bored.
A few learning points from the movie. It is no secret anymore that many educated Indian girls are duped into working as maids in the Arab countries but end up as call girls. These type of shenanigans not only in Godless nations but even in states that proclaim to upholds God's law on Earth.
Proponents of Islamic Law insist that Islamic brand of justice and jurisprudence will not affect the Non-Believer way of life. Apparently not as seen in this film of the legal system in the Emirates. Co-habitation of an unwed couple, even of non-Muslims, it seems is a serious crime. The enforcers of the law would say this is the law of our land, the others have to just oblige. On the other hand, it does not work the other way around. Immigrants and refugees to Non-Muslim lands (Dar al Harb) are hellbent on implementing sharia law in the newfound land that gave them a helping hand out of their self-created pit of hopelessness.
Maybe it is just this particular movie, but I get the vibe that the police in Dubai creates the element of fear in the eyes of the public, particularly the foreigners/expatriates. Perhaps, the director is generalising policemen as the Indian population's perception of the police. If indeed, justice is carried out to the true calling of the religion, should the citizens be empowered, not being fearful of getting embroiled with police?
The final take-home message is that despite all the adversities that the human race may be exposed to, we will rise to the occasion to stamp our dominance. No matter what the nihilistic naysayers may say about the dystopian future that they paint, we will never perish. We will always find a way to stay relevant.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Last in UAE...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8927849/Drinking-alcohol-living-without-marriage-legal-UAE.html
Non spousal cohabitation and alcohol consumption okayed.