Do you think someone could paint an accurate picture of your day merely by putting together all your interactions with a screen that day? As many of us continue to become increasingly reliant on technology, the answer inches closer and closer to ‘yes’.
This is a bit of where the premise for the ‘screenlife’ format comes from – both Searching and ‘Connection Lost’ in Modern Family use it in starkly different genres. And while the former is one of the most riveting thrillers out there, the latter is easily one of the sitcom’s best episodes. There's something about the continuing novelty of the format that drags you in from the get-go.
Filmmaker Vikramaditya Motwane experiments with the format in his latest Ctrl, starring Ananya Panday and Vihaan Samat. Nella Awasthi (Panday) and Joe Mascarena (Samat) are the ‘It Couple’ – from vlogs to brand placements, they build an entire relationship on a screen. Till one day, rather predictably, everything goes awry.
While Panday is nursing a broken heart, she receives a seemingly innocent and incredibly tempting proposition – ‘Would you like to delete your ex?’ Enter ‘Ctrl’, a software that assigns an AI companion to help Nella essentially scrub Joe off of her online presence. This AI companion – Allen (voiced by Aparshakti Khurrana) – is the ‘flirty’ kind but something about the way he moves, the constant ‘loading’ screen that comes up, borders on creepy.
As the film enters more unsettling territory, this ‘loading’ screen keeps you aware of the fact that even as Allen wipes off Nella’s social media memories, he is learning. Even something that Allen presents as an avenue for ‘comfort’ to Nella is her telling him details about her life.
One thing that stood out for me while watching Ctrl was that this film about AI and technology is, at the most basic level, about human connection.
Nella turns to the AI companion because she’s lonely – she lives away from her family, her social media fame has turned into something more complex. She begins to treat Allen almost as a presence that exists in her physical space to cut out the silence and the loneliness. This imparts a certain sense of empathy to the character, one similar to Spike Jonze's Her.
Over the course of the film, we watch Nella become more comfortable in the way she ‘exists’ around Allen and for anyone who watches the news and understands anything about ‘cookies’ and technology, alarm bells will begin to ring.
In her recent projects, Ananya Panday has proven that she fits in in this world – she makes the characterisation of a Gen Z person feel more real than caricaturish. Even at her silliest moments, Nella feels ‘real’ – the difference between her authentic self and her social media persona almost happens at the flick of an internal switch.
The way Motwane (and writer Avinash Sampath) create a digital landscape that is haunting in its authenticity. Cinematographer Pratik Shah expertly harnesses the mood shift between the digital world and the 'real' world - the glitches and soft glow of the screen and replaced by tubelights and neon signs. And that would have also not been possible without production designer Yashika Gor's attention to detail.
When Nella and Joe break up, the reaction from the digital world is captured perfectly – a Yashraj Mukhate mix drops, comedians and reaction channels make a public spectacle out of a deeply personal moment.
These are some of the best parts of Ctrl – watching Nella’s personal and social media life become intrinsically linked to one another and learning what parts of both those lives she finds comfort in. The film doesn’t try to chastise its protagonist for any of her actions – she isn’t, for instance, abandoning a perfect personal life off-screen to cater to an audience. Most of us aren’t – social media has technically replaced other forms of ‘passing time’ that we perhaps used as a mode to ‘escape’ things.
The unsettling feeling at the heart of Ctrl is translated to the viewer in the understanding that you are Nella and not only that, you are also the people on her screen. The trolls, the hate comments, the parasocial relationship people have formed with Nella and Joe, the numbers rising that lead to virality, it’s all of us. You are part of the ecosystem Nella operates in and the only thing separating you from her is the hyperbole. And the comfort that you are watching a piece of fiction.
When the film starts to step into murkier waters, of a larger conspiracy behind this AI model, the film starts to lose some of its sheen. We don’t get enough information – ironically – to truly understand the stakes of the conspiracy at hand. For instance, we haven’t formed enough of an emotional connection with anyone outside of Nella to truly feel for them or understand their motivations.
Even in the interactions between Allen and Nella, there are unanswered questions – these details, when not filled in, make everything seem a little confusing. It’s hinted that Allen is helping Nella keep her channel afloat after Joe’s exit but we don’t understand how. Is Nella creating the content herself? Is Allen involved in the post-production process at all? Because we don’t see Nella actually ever enter in that prompt for the AI, so are we to assume that he has become sentient?
The thing that helps is that Ctrl, even in these moments, acts as a cautionary tale, including a certain level of politics of the personal in its telling. It’s easy to say, ‘It’s just AI, we’ve been using it for a while, what could go wrong?’ but films like Ctrl, in their best Black Mirror homages, present a hyperbole of that statement. The very essence of a cautionary tale is to answer the age-old question: ‘What if?’ and in some of its best moments Ctrl does so well.
With a strong start and an exceptional middle portion, the flaws in the film’s latter half become a little more jarring. Things begin to feel a little rushed even as Motwane maintains quite a firm grip on the storytelling and Panday continues to impress with her performance. But Ctrl lingers – even with the flaws, it stays with you. It’s compelling in more ways than one.
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