LIK MOVIE REVIEW
Cast: Pradeep Ranganathan, Krithi Shetty, S.J. Suryah, Yogi Babu, Seeman, Gouri G Kishan
Director: Vignesh Shivan
Rating: 3.3/5
An app that tells you who to love, when to break up, and how much your heartbreak is worth in insurance premiums. On paper, that’s a Charlie Kaufman script. Vignesh Shivan makes it a rom-com instead, and the gamble mostly pays off.
Set in 2040, a dating app called Love Insurance Kompany has colonized romance itself. It tells people who to love, when to break up, and how to insure their hearts against failure. The app’s voice belongs to Vibe Vassey (Pradeep Ranganathan), who ironically doesn’t own a phone. His father (Seeman) runs a rehab-style “organic world” for smartphone addicts. When Vassey falls for Dheema (Krithi Shetty), an influencer who lives through her screen, the app’s algorithm flags them as incompatible. The premise could easily go dark, but Vignesh Shivan plays it for rom-com warmth rather than dystopian dread.
The 2040 world-building is more playful than rigorous. Some of it lands: the exaggerated phone dependency, the commodification of relationships into data points, the social commentary tucked inside the gags. Some doesn’t: the futuristic setting occasionally feels like 2026 with shinier props, and a few brand placements sit awkwardly in a world supposedly set fourteen years ahead.
The first half coasts on charm. Pradeep is more restrained than usual, less manic, more grounded. Krithi Shetty looks every inch the part and brings enough personality to Dheema, though the writing keeps her pinned as the “phone girl” a beat too long. Yogi Babu’s comedy works in bursts. Seeman, in a surprising casting choice, brings a quiet sincerity to the father role that catches you off guard.
The second half sags when the romantic stakes should be tightening. But S.J. Suryah, playing the app’s megalomaniac CEO, catches fire post-interval. He brings his trademark intensity without tipping into parody. Anirudh’s score is the other constant, propping up scenes the screenplay sometimes leaves half-built. Dheema and Pattuma are earworms. Ravi Varman’s cinematography gives the film a visual richness it wouldn’t have earned otherwise.
LIK’s problem is that it preaches what it should dramatize. The climax gets heavy-handed about phones and real connection, spelling out what the film already showed. But Vignesh Shivan’s ambition, however messy, counts for something. He built a world, populated it with entertaining people, and gave Anirudh room to cook. That’s enough for a good time, if not a great film.