'Logout' Movie Review: Irrfan Khan's son Babil gives his best shot in this watchable thriller about social media obsession

Cast: Babil Khan Rasika Dugal Gandharv Dewan Nimisha Nair

Director: Amit Golani

Language: Hindi

Login and logout are two of the most used terms in today’s times. These two words are often used by social media influencers and corporate employees. The white-collar people get gratified by the idea of logging out and social media influencers get excited by the idea of logging in. And Hindi filmmakers are also milking the idea of this obsession.

Irrfan Khan’s son Babil stars in his new film called Logout. The title itself is a giveaway of what to expect. Babil plays a social media influencer who is on the brink of amassing10 million followers. His character is more successful and popular than he is in real life, which only makes the narrative more interesting. And going by the trailer, you can expect all hell is going to break loose.

They say the more likes and hits you get, the more gratified you feel. It releases what we call as dopamine. Quick fame and fortune is the need or maybe the greed of the hour. And this film is an attempt to portray the farcical nature of fleeting popularity. And casting Babil seems to be an interesting choice. Here’s an actor whose apology video went viral in no time and netizens had all sorts of reactions. It would have been far more interesting though to cast Babil as himself, and introduce the new kid on the block to the new world on the block. Maybe next time!

We have seen Hollywood classic like Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind and in the Hindi content landscape and language, a film like CTRL . These are the movies where social media is also one of the central characters. But Logout is not a clone, but bears a faint resemblance to the idea. This time, it’s not the Artificial Intelligence but a human being who begins to play games with our hero. Babil gets the jittery performance nearly right when the shaky camera angle captures his restlessness and horror. He also puts his best foot forward when it comes to jumping into an opposite direction and dynamic of his personality. Writer Biswapati Sarkar and director Amit Golani also lace the film with a sense of unexpected humor.

Sarkar is the man who found tremendous success and popularity with his imitation of news anchor Arnab Goswami. So it’s expected he would do something bonkers as a writer too. Despite the lack of a fresh idea, you cannot ignore the subtle irony of how something you control ends up controlling you. Fortunately, the makers steer clear of a moralistic ideology that could have derailed an otherwise watchable thriller. Of course, cinema may impact the society, but can never change it. Logout may or may not be talked about. But all the social media influencers out there are definitely not leaving their unhealthy obsession of checking their likes, dislikes and followers every minute. Login will always trump logout.

Rating: 3 (out of 5 stars)

Logout premieres on Zee5 on April 18