Logout Movie Review — Sucharita Tyagi
One assumes to connect with a Gen-Z audience that cannot be bothered to give anyone their attention, a horde of writers-filmmakers are trying to crack that “social media waali” script.
Most attempts you see on your screens are, to borrow from internet speak, cringe.
The one we’re talking about today, has the promise of breaking that clutter, if it weren’t just so desperate.
Aao, bataati hoon.
Pratyush Dua, played by Babil Khan, is a Gurgaon-based influencer with ALMOST 10 million followers on a suspiciously familiar-looking app called My Dazzle — which is totally not Instagram, but you know, if it looks like a duck. Neck in neck with another infuencer, in the race to reach 10 million, Pratyush has brand deals on the line if he doesn’t win. He’s willing to do whatever it takes, including a collab with Bhuvan Bam. We are told to achieve this dream, Pratyush has had to dissociate himself from family. Rasika Dugal appears as his sister in an early scene as he laments, “ghar pe koi mujhey samajhne ko koshish hi nahi karta”.
One day, Pratyush, popularly called Pratty, wakes up to a nightmare….his phone is missing. Soon, he’s stalked, blackmailed, and forced to play twisted games by a mysterious caller, who may or may not have his phone.
Written by one of the pioneering voices of writers creating exclusively for the internet in its early days, Biswapti Sirkar, Logout wretchedly wants your attention. Like the most annoying person telling a story who keeps saying over and over, “right?” Like, don’t guide me so much, let me get there myself. The film begins with a quote that says something like “7 billion people are prisoners, that’s why they are called “cell phones”.” It’s weirdy and cheesy, and makes you wonder if there aren’t better quotes from serious philosophers on the subject.
Despite setting expectations rather low, in part thanks to questionable CGI blood, and off-sounding voice dubbing, Logout manages to course-correct along the way. The film very obviously wants to be a treatise on addiction to social media, and how devices control most human interactions, and to its credit, it almost even gets there. Director Amit Golani, unlike many others who don’t quite understand how the social media space works, refreshingly is out to demonize social media as much as he wants to dissect it — with a slightly heavy hand, yes — but also with some intrigue and decent intentions.
Pratyush is trapped (mostly in his room, with very pandemic cinema vibes) trying to solve a series of puzzles to get to the stalker who has his phone. Played by Nimisha, the stalker always remains two decibels too dramatic. But because the story has a clever enough setup, and as the opening scene finally loops back into the narrative, focus largely remains on the mystery at hand.
The central conflict — being consumed whole and simultaneously rejected by social media platforms, is something that hasn’t quite been explored seriously in hindi cinema, barring perhaps DIbakar Bannerjee’s LSD2, a criminally underrated study of our times. In the hands of Biswapati Sarkar, Amit Golani, and a devastatingly cute Babil Khan, Logout just about stays above water as a serviceable, modest little whodunit, set on that divide that keeps our digital lives from spilling into reality.
Walking a line between tech thriller and emotional drama, isn’t easy, considering the people watching, i.e aforementioned Gen-Z and even millennials, are quick to spot mistakes in your depiction of the worlds they occupy. Atleast in Logout you don’t see someone go “viral” and excessive usage of outdated hashtags. One is even willing to side step the heavily on the nose metaphors like chooha caught in a cage eating fast food, in favor of little moments like influencers using fake profiles for internet clout, type moments.
Logout doesn’t wag its finger at influencers, but it also doesn’t pity them. Biswapati Sirkar understands the culture of controversy, clickbait, and performative vs real grief, his observations and experience in the field makes his writing FEEL better observed. Not just from the point of view of the famous, but to a certain extent also a commentary on increasingly obsessive paracosial relationships these platform encourage. False Gods as far as the eye can see. Itna ki yeh ascertain karna na-mumkin hai power screen ke iss taraf hai ya uss taraf.
Where the movie falters hard, is the last 20 minutes. The reveal and eventual conclusion, or lack of it, while decently set up, is undercut by melodrama and a “moral of the story” tone, despite Babil Khan pushing with all his might. To truly capture the way our devices have altered our brain chemistry and create something that may allow one to zoom out enough to attain perspective, someone will need to produce a more concerted, less clumsy effort, on all fronts.
Black Mirror ka naya season aana shuru hi gaya hai na?
Kher, yeh film aap dekh sakte hain Zee 5 par.
