‘LIK – Love Insurance Kompany’ Review: Pradeep Ranganathan Brings Heartfelt ‘Vibe’ As He Rages Against The Machine

The near future you see playing out in the just-released “LIK - Love Insurance Kompany” might well be the love-child of “The Consultant” and a “Black Mirror” episode. Closer home, ‘CTRL’ could be seen as a distant cousin. However, what writer-director Vignesh Shivan does with “LIK” aims for and hits closer to the heart.

After losing a family member to a phone addiction, Vaibhav Vasudev aka Vibe Vassey (Pradeep Ranganathan) helps out his father with a rehab center of sorts for recovering technology addicts. He is surrounded by friends who hang on his every word even as the world around him – a rather futuristic Chennai – is content with letting an all-encompassing app LIK, owned by overarching and overreaching tech baron Suriyan (SJ Suryah) handle all their data and tell them how to live their lives. Vibe is content without technology in his life and yet lends his voice to LIK (a la Siri). When he goes to pick up his pay for the job, Suriyan takes his aversion to tech as a challenge.

Heading out, he runs into and instantly falls for Dheema Puppyma (Krithi Shetty), an on-the-rise influencer who has had a neglected childhood and is wary of getting into a relationship easily. Just one hitch. She’d rather take a manipulative LIK’s word/score over a flesh-and-blood human’s. On the face of it, they’re incompatible and anyone with half their wits about them could tell you that. And yet, inexplicably, the two connect.

But before they can take their relationship to the next level, Suriyan’s ego and manipulations drive them apart. Will reuniting be as easy as it was to connect and be committed

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At the heart of the high-concept “LIK” is something Upendra, the cerebral Kannada actor-filmmaker, would love to pick up. Having IRL love working against algorithms and winning despite social media’s omniscience and a common man’s raging against the ‘machine’ is stuff cinema fever dreams are made of. 

Things haven’t changed much in 2040 and yet, if you go by director Vignesh Shivan’s vision and Muthurajthangavel’s production design, Ravi Varman’s cinematography and the thought that went behind costuming, much has. It’s the sort of development one expects to see in one’s lifetime. That apart, Anirudh’s music is on point and is a part of the narrative flow and impresses you with how smoothly it becomes something you look forward to.

Pradeep Ranganathan brings Vignesh Shivan’s vision for Vibe to life and plays his part with a verve we don’t see in far more experienced actors. He flips the standard on what we see as a conventional hero and with his consistent performances – including this one, gives a masterclass in owning every frame he’s in. While his massy moments in this film sometimes feels at odds with his vulnerable side, he brings it all together with a natural earnestness that just keeps you engaged throughout.

For an influencer, Dheema’s quite easily influenced. Krithi’s portrayal takes away any caricaturishness the character could have lent itself to. Her backstory, while threadbare, isn’t unheard of. She has her reasons for being the way she is and there are some that find it relatable. As Dheema's "open friend," Yogi Babu's character feels like a force fit.

SJ Suryah’s Suriyan is shown to be someone in power, who is all too aware that perceptions and self-belief are equally important. As the top dog at LIK, he inspires equal parts fear and equal parts loyalty in his . His vision is what got the Kompany to where it’s at and his intuition is rarely wrong. The trouble is that he sometimes plays it a little too loud and on the nose. His negotiations with Vibe are one of the film’s highlights.

Ranting about how invasive always-connectedness can get without getting preachy and being entertaining while doing that, is an art and “LIK” nails it effortlessly