Love Insurance Kompany(LIK) Review

After establishing himself as one of the most bankable stars with three back-to-back successful films (i.e., Love Today, Dragon & Dude), Tamil hero Pradeep Ranganathan teamed up with director Vignesh Shivan for a futuristic romantic comedy. At the time it was announced, the film instantly raised expectations because of the combination of Pradeep Ranganathan, Vignesh Shivan and Anirudh Ravichander.

The expectations further increased when the team released the song ‘Dheema Dheema’, a few months ago. After getting postponed a few times for reasons best known to the makers, the film was finally released in theatres today. Did, Pradeep Ranganathan, score a fourth hit in a row as the lead actor? Did the director, Vignesh Shivan, come up with an engaging romantic comedy film? Did Anirudh Ravichander’s music help the film become a hit? How did Pradeep and Krithi Shetty’s pairing look on screen? Did, S. J. Suryah, excel in an antagonist role yet again? Let’s figure it out with a detailed analysis.

What is it about?

What happens when a guy(Pradeep Ranganathan), who doesn’t even use a mobile phone in the year 2040, falls in love with a girl(Krithi Shetty), who is a social media influencer and depends on social networking platforms to find her a right match, is the storyline of the film. Why did, Vasu Aka Vibe Vassey, not use a mobile phone? How did Vasu end up lending his voice to the social networking app, Love Insurance Kompany(LIK)? What happens when Vasu proposes Dheema)? What challenges did the couple face because of the app ‘LIK’? Forms the rest of the story.

Performances:

Pradeep Ranganathan did well in parts. After a point during the filming, it looked like he lost interest in the project. The lack of interest in him was to be seen at many places in the film where he just appeared blank and bland. S. J. Suryah is the only actor who has appeared totally involved. He did a decent job with his performance and entertained in a couple of sequences with his dialogue modulation. Senior actor, Anandaraj, with his comedy timing, generated a few laughs at a couple of places.

Yogi Babu generated a few laughs but his character irritates after a point. Krithi Shetty in the lead actress role looked good but her performance should have been better. However, it is unfair to blame her for not coming up with a good performance in a poorly written and executed role. Same goes with the remaining actors in the film. Almost everyone appeared lost and uninterested.

Technicalities:

Anirudh is known for taking the films to the next level with his music. But in LIK, barring one song, his songs and background score are underwhelming to say the least. It seems like he was excited during the initial phase of discussing the story idea and eventually lost interest. It is surprising to see him scoring a song which is almost similar to his own song ‘Hoyna Hoyna’ from Nani’s Gang Leader.

Pradeep E. Ragav’s editing was poor. At least twenty minutes of trimming would have made the film at least bearable. There were at least four sequences in the film that dragged on forever and irritated. Cinematography by Ravi Varman is colourful and vibrant but there’s nothing extraordinary. The art and production design team, would have done a better job. We can see their lack of imagination and originality in the ideas they used to build a futuristic world. Let’s discuss the writer and director, Vignesh Shivan’s, work in detail in the analysis section.

Positives:

1.⁠ ⁠Dheema Dheema Song
2.⁠ ⁠Pradeep’s Performance In Parts

Negatives:

1.⁠ ⁠Writing & Screenplay
2.⁠ ⁠Poor Direction
3.⁠ ⁠Lack of Emotional Depth
4.⁠ ⁠Lengthy Runtime
5.⁠ ⁠Anirudh’s Music

Analysis:

An emerging star hero with three consecutive hits, a most bankable music director, an actress with a decent following among youth, a highly successful actor in an antagonist role, and an interesting storyline ‘Love Insurance Kompany (LIK)’, has almost everything needed to become a hit. However, the lack of ideas and imagination from the writer and director, Vignesh Shivan, turned it into a mess of a film that becomes unbearable to watch after a point. After a painfully dull first hour, the pre-interval sequence briefly offers hope for a better second half, but it doesn’t take long to realise that the second half is even more tedious than the first half. Whatever has to go wrong has gone wrong for the film at the writing table itself and we see it throughout looking at the uninterested performances from almost all the actors and below-par output from all the technicians, including the usually reliable music director, Anirudh.

Now, read the following – In the year 2040, a person who failed in love, develops an app with the name ‘LIK’. The app aims to find the most compatible match for people to get into a relationship. It also ta talks to people, follows their instructions and does things it is asked to do. In no time, the app ends up becoming super successful among all sections of people and goes on to become a revolution across the globe and starts to give competition for Google Inc. and other tech giants in terms of revenue.

While reading the above description, you must have started imagining an app which is developed using some cutting-edge technology and with the most advanced features, right? But, what we get to see is an app that is a hybrid version of Alexa and existing dating apps like Tinder, Hinge, etc. It is so laughable to even think the director and his team believed to engage the audience with such a lame idea for an app and that too in the year 2040. Now, let’s read the following…

Young kids who don’t eat food without watching videos on mobile phone, people who are obsessed with ‘likes, shares and comments’ on social media, influencers who can go to any extent to make a viral video, paid meme makers who mudsling on people by photoshopping pictures, over reliability on the e-commerce apps, people who goes to retreats like ‘Vipassana’ to unwind themselves from excessive usage of social media and hectic work schedules, people depending on apps to find potential partners for dating instead of seeking real life connections.

Aren’t most people doing all the aforementioned things these days? In fact, people have been doing these things for the last decade or so, right? What is the need for the director to set up the film in 2040 to show the above-mentioned things? It makes no difference to the storyline of the film, even if the director set up the film in 2026 or even before. The lack of original ideas, imagination and creative ability of the director is to be seen throughout the film.

Overall, the storyline of Love Insurance Kompany(LIK), has the potential but the uninspiring writing, screenplay, and direction, along with a lengthy runtime, made it a boring watch. In a film with a love story as its core point, it was surprising not to see even a single emotional scene that touches your heart. When you have nothing else to do, you may watch it when the film releases on OTT but it certainly doesn’t warrant or deserve a watch in the theatre. In all probability, the film is certain to be a speed breaker for Pradeep Ranganathan’s success streak at the box office.

Bottomline – Not ‘Like’ Worthy

Rating – 2/5