Review of “LIK – Love Insurance Kompany”

Pradeep Ranganathan tasted his first box-office failure with his last release, LIK – Love Insurance Kompany, a film written and directed by Vignesh Shivan and produced by Nayanthara for The Rowdy Pictures.

Pradeep Ranganathan plays the lead role opposite Krithi Shetty. The supporting cast includes S.J. Surya, Gouri G Kishan, Shah Ra, Seeman, Yogi Babu, Malavika, Anandaraj, Yogi Babu, Sunil, Riya Suman and cameo appearances by VTV Ganesh, Mysskin, Rangaraj Pandey, Deepika Vekatachellam, Namitha Marimuthu, Dowakar, VJ Abishek Raaja and the voices of Anirudh Ravichander and Vignesh Shivan.

One would think that with a cast like this, the financial backing of star couple Vignesh Shivan and Nayanthara and the pre-release hype of the film that LIK would be an unforgettable film. The film is undoubtedly an unforgettable film – but for the same reason that Kamal Haasan’s Indian 2 was an unforgettable film.

LIK is a severe test of one’s patience despite the lavish budget, glamour, songs and skin show, and it does not help at all that the audience has to endure 157 minutes of this prolonged torture.

The film is supposed to be a futuristic fantasy adventure and, with crafts flying over a super modern Chennai, one would be forgiven for thinking the setting is at least a century from now. Instead, the story is set a mere 14 years away – in 2040.

Vaibhav Vasudevan (Pradeep Ranganathan) is better known as Vibe Vassey. He is selected from numerous applicants to be the voice of an ambitious called LIK, designed to take away the unknown from dating and other relationships. As the popularity of the app soars amid the many positive stories associated with it, good PR from Suriyan (S.J. Suryah) who owns the company that marketed LIK has the effect of obliterating the negative effects of the app.

Bearing the brunt of the downside of the app, Vibe Vassey decides to take on the Suryian and his company in a bid to prove that love cannot be controlled or determined by a computer application. His long-drawn out attempts to do so form the rest of this slow-paced and ridiculously unrealistic fantasy romance.

Given the handicap of the inane script and shoddy screenplay, it is not surprising that the actors all struggle to be taken seriously.

Pradeep Ranganathan is in grave danger of being typecast, as he is in a role that appears in many respects to be a carbon copy of his other recent roles. He puts in minimal effort in the role and it shows.

S.J.Surya is usually able to breathe life and energy into any role, but cannot do the same with his role in LIK. The situation is larger-than-life and the “conflict” far too contrived to be taken seriously.

The film’s biggest drawback is the contribution of its lead actress, Krithi Shetty, who was under the misperception that skimpy clothing can hide her total inability to emote naturally. It is therefore close to empathise with a character who has zero charm or any other endearing qualities.

Seeman, himself a talented writer and director, must have had a really good reason to dump his sense of judgement in accepting the one-dimensional role of Vibe Vassey’s role, made even more difficult because of the lack of emotional connect with the character.

Shah Ra is an immensely talented actor, but he is unable to escape the confines of his role as Jayanth, the close friend and confidante of Vibe Vassey.

Gouri G Kishan is relegated to an extra with some talkie portions while Anandaraj is nothing more than a caricature of a villain’s assistant.

Yogi Babu’s role is not one he is likely to include in his resume for future roles.

The sporadic wit in the opening scenes rapidly lose their charm and Vignesh Shivan’s attempts at humour fall completely flat. He fares even worse in the scenes where he tries to stare up audience emotion or empathy, failing dismally at both.

Anirudh’s soundtrack is adequate, but has clearly been unwilling to break the template he has been using of late. His background score is shockingly bad. Nobody would believe that the person behind background scores like Vikram, Master and Leo was the same person who scored the music in LIK.

Ravi Varman is a talented cinematographer, but his last three releases were Indian 2, Vaa Vaathiyar and LIK. Unfortunately, he seems to be taking his cue from the quality of the script, as there is indication of his talent in framing, lighting and angles.

LIK is an embarrassing attempt to make a statement on the negative effects of social media. The attempt falls very far from the mark because of the lack of depth in the story, script and screenplay.

LIK (Life Insurance Kompany) scores 3 points out of 10.