Tikiland review: A disappointing critique of social media addiction

Abhishek Chowdhury’s film Tikiland attempts to critique everyday addiction to social media and virtual reality, depicting a dystopia where everyone is infected by a virus called FOMO. In Tikiland, pretty much the entire populace has been turned into TikiZombies, except for a theatre practitioner named Saptak (Devtanu Das).

Neither does Saptak have social media accounts nor does he make Tikitoki videos in order to increase his following. He takes pride in his originality as an artiste and aims to organize a movement against the mass scramble for online relevance.

While the TikiZombies seem completely detached from reality and are in a rat race to churn out content, Saptak observes them as a distressed outsider. But throughout the film, he only seems content to rant, rave and repeat his ideas ad nauseam. Though he writes a play based on his observations and attempts to enact it with his theatre group to spread awareness, he hardly tries to make his voice heard after being threatened by TikiZombies during the performance.

In the end, the film establishes the idea that there is no escape from the delusional trend. It seems that the director and the writer failed to develop a proper storyline, and hence, despite proposing the creation of an antidote from the beginning, the film fails to come up with a means to counter the menace.

Devtanu, who is also the writer of the film, just vents his ire repetitively throughout the film. In the end, Saptak rather seems like an egomaniac, who, like an empty vessel, makes much noise.

Among the cast, only Suvosmita Mukherjee, as the established TikiStar Aditi, delivers a confident performance.

The film presents a convincing portrayal of social media addiction. As Saptak points out, the TikiZombies lack the qualities that distinguish a human from a machine. The gaudy clothes, masked faces and moronic activities highlight the sick mentality of people who do not hesitate to commodify people’s misery in order to go viral.

Much like the underdeveloped screenplay, the disjointed cinematography by Rana Pratap Karforma fails to impress. Hillol Acharya, on the other hand, has tried his best to add a dramatic touch to some of the moments of tension in the film with his background score.

Tikiland disappoints by not delivering on the promises it made in the trailer. The repetitive monologues on how education and originality mark the advancement of society ring hollow ultimately.

Tikiland is being streamed on Mojoplex.