‘Early Days’ review: Elegant Mumbai-set debut explores intrusive impact of social media

Dir/scr: Priyankar Patra. India/Singapore. 2025. 102mins

In Priyankar Patra’s eerily current debut two-hander, a young couple just starting a life together in Mumbai get lost in the miasma of social media and the demands of full-time influencing. Initially, Preeti (Manasi Kaushik) and Samrat’s (Sarthak Sharma) seemingly innocuous videos are greeted by friends as charming slices of life, but soon turn into a revenue stream – which puts stress on their relationship. Exploring the disintegration of a relationship through an increasingly familiar aesthetic, Early Days signals a resonant and relevant new voice.

Signals a resonant and relevant new voice

Screenwriter and playwright Patra, who also serves as his own cinematographer and producer, previously served as assistant director on Once Upon A Time In Calcutta director for Aditya Vikram Sengupta, who serves as an executive producer here. Sengupta’s name may open a few extra doors but the zeitgeisty subject matter is just as likely to help Early Days gain traction following its premiere in Red Sea’s New Visions. As a window on everyday middle class Mumbai, it is a drama from India that has nothing to do with caste or poverty – that could also pique the interest of distributors and festivals with an eye towards Indian indies. Ironically, or perhaps intentionally, the film is should play well on streaming platforms.

Broken into three chapters, Early Days begins when Preeti and Samrat move into a new flat in Mumbai. Sitting by a window and watching the rain, the affectionate new couple make plans and chatter aimlessly about what life in the big city will be like for them. Though clearly aspiring to something greater, Preeti is a country girl and Samrat is a sweet-natured guy who just wants to support his family and make Preeti happy.

Preeti and Samrat are almost always smiling, particularly in the videos they start posting for friends and family documenting their discovery of Mumbai. Notably, the comments section is loaded with observations about how cute, adorable and in love they look. By the end of their first month in the city, Preeti has renamed their joint social media profile PriSm and started dabbling in influencing as a side hustle. Patra shoots these early scenes, these early days, in an almost grainy mobile phone aesthetic, in tight close-up and in awkward, sometimes candid compositions that mimic amateur. It’s the vaguely voyeuristic language of digital mobile communications and it brings a tone of immediacy to the narrative.

It’s not long before Preeti starts neglecting her actual job, engaging with Samrat purely as a director and obsessing over an unseen competitor she knows from her school days. By the time a year has passed, a wedge has been driven between Preeti and Samrat that quickly becomes a gaping chasm. The emotionally rich close-ups diminish in frequency as the line between their public and private lives blurs, culminating in a roadside confrontation that’s probably headed for social media outlets as a PriSm exposé.

Patra’s script doesn’t say anything new about culture and social media, but says it with the palpable, judgement-free understanding of a digital native. There’s an authentic understanding of the ephemeral or diaphanous nature of influencing and its appeal; as Samrat suggests, it’s easy extra cash. It’s the resulting impact of this easy cash and the demands on our time, attention, personal connections and – also as Samrat observes – emotional space that Patra is most interested in interrogating. 

Preeti’s willingness to live their lives for followers and likes is one thing, but her determination to fundamentally alter who she is – demonstrated by a new ‘brand collab’ and her suddenly stylishly wavy hair – is quite another. This thoroughly modern quagmire is embodied elegantly by Kaushik and Sharma in a pair of stellar performances that make Preeti and Samrat feel lived in for their relatability, warmth, goofiness and imperfect humanity.