Like Aani Subscribe review: Abhishek Merukar takes us on a thrilling ride full of twists and turns which also takes subtle dig at social media addiction
Flmmaker Vikramaditya Motwane's screenlife thriller film 'CTRL', starring Ananya Pandey and Vihaan Samat, had a direct OTT release on Netflix. The film was about a 'social media influencer' couple who liked to share everything about their relationship and personal lives on social media, and the movie received mostly positive feedback from audiences and critics, with everyone, particularly film critics, praising how the film addressed an important issue of how social media is isolating people rather than uniting them. With the new comedic thriller Marathi film 'Like Aani Subscribe', debutant writer-director Abhishek Merukar takes a different approach to the topic of "social media obsession" and how "sharing everything about your life on social media" may land you in trouble.
At first, we appear to be watching a film about Khushi (Jui Bhagwat), a social media influencer and vlogger who spends the majority of her time livestreaming and sharing her daily activities with her social media followers. She is so preoccupied with increasing the number of followers and likes on her social media channel that she is willing to share information about a tragedy her friend has recently experienced in order to attract more followers by eliciting empathy. Filmmaker Abhishek Merukar uses Khushi's daily livestream video to introduce us to Khushi, her daily routine, her friends, and her day job. We also learn that she is a struggling actor during a livestream of one of her auditions. However, the film quickly turns into a murder mystery when Khushi's obsession with livestreaming videos to share everything about her daily routine with her followers (whom she refers to as "Khushians") gets her in big trouble when she enters a stranger's house and discovers a dead body of a man. It's evident that it was a murder, and she's the primary suspect. While being interrogated in the police station, she meets a social worker and documentary filmmaker Deepika (Amruta Khanvilkar), who is probably the only one who believes that Khushi should not be treated as a suspect, but as a victim, and she decides to help Khushi and her friend Shruti (Rajasi Bhave) to figure out who killed this man and why, in order to prove Khushi's innocence.
With this film, Abhishek Merukar highlights several critical topics concerning social media addiction and how social media presence has become the primary source of happiness for the Gen-Z population. We have heard many veteran actors as well as struggling actors complaining about how instead of looking for acting talent, the number of social media followers of the actor has become the deciding factor of getting a role in the film or web show. And in this film, writer-director Abhishek Merukar takes a sly dig at this whole idea of 'casting social media influencers', in films and web shows since last few years. However, he avoids being preachy or serious when discussing this problem. For instance, in the first few minutes, we see Khushi getting thrilled when her newly uploaded video on her social media channel received over 10,000 views and 3 thousand likes in just a few days. She is so thrilled that she probably doesn't even care that her friend and roommate has just gone through some personal tragedy. Merukar also does a good job of injecting some dry humour into Khushi's livestream videos through hilarious comments from her followers, so these livestream videos don't appear too banal or dull. As the plot progresses and few more characters are introduced, we gradually realise that 'all is not as it seems' and that almost everyone has a personal purpose to be a part of this intertwined web of conceit. Even Deepika (Amruta Khanvilkar) cautions Khushi that "if she wasn't so desperate for these likes and views, maybe she wouldn't have gotten entangled in this tricky web."
Even though he doesn't get as much screen time as one might anticipate—especially after seeing the trailer—Amey Wagh's character is crucial to creating this complex web of conceit. Amey Wagh does an excellent job as this manipulative, cunning man. In this movie, he steals the show the most. His endearing demeanour and sardonic sense of humour captivate the audience in every scene he appears in. Jui Bhagwat also does a fine job as this young vlogger who is too desperate to gain social media followers, as this is probably the only way for someone like her who has no inside connection within the film industry to get cast in some web series or a film. Shubhankar Tawde also does a fine job as a dubious man who seems to have some personal motive to participate in this investigation. Amruta Khanvilkar's portrayal of this ambitious young social worker and documentary filmmaker did not convince me. Even her character was poorly written. Instead of writing a genuine character, it appeared that Merukar merely just read and watched a few videos of some real life social worker and placed her in that circumstance, and imagined how she would behave and react in such situations.
Those who are well-versed in all police procedures may notice certain logical flaws in this intertwined narrative and plot armor surrounding 'Khushi', but it compensates for some of these flaws with a fascinating and exhilarating ride full of twists and turns. Also, those who are being overly critical and trying too hard to nitpick some logical flaws and plot armour set around this young vlogger Khushi should keep in mind that we are watching a film based on a fictional story, not a crime documentary based on a true event where everything must be accurate.
And, let's be honest here, we all know the fact that every protagonist in all action, adventure, heist, horror, thriller, suspense, murder mystery genre films walks with some kind of plot armor. Otherwise the protagonist would be dead within a few minutes. And as Mohanlal's Georgekutty says in Drishyam 2 "it's just a cinema, so what if the hero turns out to be lucky or has the blessings of God".
Cast: Jui Bhagwat, Amruta Khanvilkar, Amey Wagh
Writer: Abhishek Merukar
Director: Abhishek Merukar
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