Premise:  Taking place in 2040, LIK is a popular mobile application created by SJ Suryah, helping people to stay connected with each other. Conflict opens up when the AI app happens to be the reason behind Pradeep Ranganathan’s breakup, a person who goes by his heart for love.

Writing/ Direction: An out-of-the-box content from Vignesh Shivan, that deals about Heart versus App. Very relatable for the youths especially and in fact an alarming subject that kids and their parents should be aware of. With someone like Pradeep Ranganathan leading from the front, and Seeman who is a man of rooted ideologies, we get to root for something right. The futuristic storyworld happening in 2040 is believably brought to screen as the director’s vision has gotten fulfilled by rich making and grand production values. But unfortunately, there are plenty of issues in the execution of such a noble concept. Utilising real-life online influencers to establish the main idea is a smart one, but the fact has become over ambitious in the process by conveniently using them throughout the screenplay, repetitively showcasing the YouTube trios for no reason. Lip-sync issues exist at so many spots. The treatment is a mixed bag, some places are sensible and connect very well, sadly certain stretches give us a hard time with monotonously behaving characters. Same way there are equal shares of trendy dialogues and flat ones. Many cringe moments are annoying as well, though they are self-aware, flipside a lot of talkie portions for a film that has splendid potential for visual storytelling. The emotions do carry, but only tries to provide an impact rising beyond the artificial approach in a bunch of places. The film starts neatly by establishing the script outline, but wastes time with some dull humour in the first half. Revives with an innovative Halloween night sequence, followed by the solid pre-interval stretch with the conflict heating up at the halfway mark. The humour is much better in the latter half, packed with some clap-worthy commercial moments. The enjoyable face-off scenes between PR and SJS add to the theatrical fun factor. But again falters in the final act with things getting extremely filmy and overly dragged, a grounded climax would have elevated the importance of the intent.

Performances: Unlike his previous films, Pradeep Ranganathan is a bit subtle here, but does provide his sarcastic trademark mannerisms at times. Typical SJ Suryah act, loud and sudden silent shifts, scores well in the second half. Tailor-made role for Kriti Shetty and good efforts with her own dubbing, but struggles to emote. Yogi Babu’s humour partially works, the magic is missing indeed. While Anandaraj shines with his witty one-liners, an unwanted cameo by VTV Ganesh. Seeman replicates his real life persona on-screen, excluding his political angle, not impactful yet an interesting casting choice. Too many influencer appearances spoiling the show. Sha Ra’s character is intended to be funny, clicks in the Halloween scene but fails in the rest. Gowri Kishan plays vital role in driving the story forward, but she was given excessive screen time which was not really required.

Technicalities: Anirudh’s best album in recent times, with Dheema Dheema being a crowd-puller and Enakkena Yarum Illaye making the crowd go crazy. His background score is efficient to the flow, someone who has mastered the heroic timing, repeats the magic in the last reel here, despite the situations being weak. Visuals are too cool and apt to give it the futuristic tag, many hand-held shots and unpredictable camera angles do surprise, but goes way too experimental with lensing. Pradeep E.Ragav’s transitions are seamless but he had plenty of scope to trim the runtime by at least 20 minutes. Immense work by the art department and the costume team to make the film as promising as possible for the chosen timeline.

Verdict: A subject that is worthy enough to create a wave among the public. Conveys a noble message with some entertaining stretches here and there. But tends to be fake with many characterizations and an inventive writing was absent throughout, by Vignesh Shivan trusting the commercial gimmicks a lot more than he should have.

LIK - Mesmerizing content presented in a mediocre manner!

Rating - 2.5/ 5.