Kho Gaye Hum Kahan review: Netflix film beautifully shines lens at Gen Z's social media obsession, digital loneliness

Director: Arjun Varain Singh

Cast: Ananya Panday, Adarsh Gourav, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Kalki Koechlin, Anya Singh

Where to watch: Netflix

Rating: 3.5 stars

There have been films on relationships and loneliness, dealing with how youngsters grapple love, identity and everything in between. But if you look at the track record of best such Hindi films, they have largely been done by millennials, for millennials. There is an entire generation of young souls who have grown up since then, with very little ‘quality’ representation in this genre (please note the emphasis on quality). Kho Gaye Hum Kahan fills that void and does it without preaching, sermonising, or even sympathising. Arjun Varain Singh’s film offers a realistic and simple take on the complexities Gen Z face.

Kho Gaye Hum Kahan is about three friends – wannabe stand-up comi Imaad (Siddhant Chaturvedi), fitness trainer Neil (Adarsh Gourav), and marketing professional Ahana (Ananya Panday). All three have their hangups, their insecurities, and their issues, ranging from a fear of intimacy to jealousy and social media envy. The film chronicles how they come to terms with all this and combat it.

All this may sound heavy but Kho Gaye Hum Kahan is by no means a heavy or macabre fim. It’s a fun film made for the younger digital generation. It shines a light, quite beautifully, on their social media obsession, without ever looking down at them. That is what clinches it for this narrative. Director Arju Varain Singh never looks at the protagonists as lost souls or erring kids, but as living, breathing, flawed adults, who make mistakes, like everyone else.

The first thing that Kho Gaye Hum Kahan does well is that it firmly establishes itself in this world, becoming relatable very quickly. Part of it is due to its smart use of pings and chimes from the phones to set an ambience. The pop culture references – from Koffee With Karan to the ever-present Orry – help this further. It also presents its chaacters not as caricatures and not as some alien concepts of youngsters that many films do.

The film’s depiction of obsession with social media and how peope transform their way of living based on that online validation is very subtle and on point. The editing, direction, and cinematography bring that out quite well. And the actors complement the writing beautifully too. Adarsh Gourav is the stand out performer, yet again bringing acomplex, flawed character to the screen so effortlessly. Everytime I see him on screen these days, I feel like we are watching the beginnings of a truly fine acting career. Siddhant Chaturvedi, too, does well to bring the pain of Imaad to the fore. His character could have been a stereotype – using humour to mask insecurities – but the actor does well to make it feel believable without ever being gimmicky. In one of the monologues towards the film’s climax, he brings his A-game, moving you just with his words and eyes.

The big surprise for me was Ananya Panday, who has easily given the strongest performance of her young career. The easy, breezy scenes come naturally to the actress, who has clearly matured a lot since Student of the Year 2. But now she holds her own in the heavier, more emotional scenes too.

I have a few issues with Kho Gaye Hum Kahan though. The film talks about social media and digital loneliness and how easily we buy into things presented online. And then it goes to attack social media infuencers, often looking down at them and deriding them. The film almost paints them as the representation of all that is wrong with this obsession, without ever pausing to wonder if these influencers are just as much the ‘victims’ of this obsession as we all are.

But all in all, Kho Gaye Hum Kahan is a fun, breezy film that is as much about friendships as it is about everything that Generation Z brushes under the carpet. And yet, it never sympathises with them, never pities them. It lets them live their life, even if it is in a completely flawed manner, allowing them to pick up the pieces themselves.