CTRL REVIEW: Ananya Panday starrer predicts the inevitable future if reliance on AI continues

Film:
CTRL

Director: Vikramaditya Motwane

Writer: Vikramaditya Motwane, Avinash Sampath

Cast: Ananya Panday, Vihaan Samat

Run Time: 99 minutes (1 hour, 39 minutes)

Platform: Netflix

CTRL Review

Vikramaditya Motwane’s CTRL with Ananya Pandey in the lead is an eye-opener on what the future holds if people get overly dependent on AI and AI-based apps. While artificial intelligence is helpful in a number of ways and across sectors like education and medicine, CTRL highlights how relying on them for emotional fulfilment can make us nothing more than puppets for those in power.

Vikramaditya’s thriller is centred on the life of Nella Awasthi (Ananya). Nella along with her longtime boyfriend Joe Mascarenhas (Vihaan Samat) are social media influencers ‘Njoy’ who have a huge following. The duo – who are known for sharing everything with their followers have a bitter break-up when Nella catching him with another woman on their anniversary. In the aftermath of the breakup, Nella enlists the help of an AI app to remove all traces of Joe from her life and become happy once more. But is everything as it seems? What are the drawbacks of having a 24×7 open connection with AI apps? To know the answers watch CTRL on Netflix and read our review of it to know what to expect.

What Works

The concept. It is the need of the hour and perfectly sheds light on how dependence on AI can ruin an individual’s life. The acting – though not out-of-the-world, is believable and apt for the narrative.

What Doesn’t Work

The film will connect only with the younger, more tech-savvy generation. The elderly and those who aren’t always on their devices trying out new things – that are mostly AI-based, will fail to understand the technicalities of all that’s happening.

Technical Analysis

Story & Screenplay

Written by Vikramaditya Motwane and Avinash Sampath, with dialogues by Sumukhi Suresh, CTRL is a hard-hitting film that predicts the inevitable future if reliance on AI continues. The film – which is the need of the time, showcases the negative aspects of AI and social media and how following trends blindly is not always good or cool. The writing though immersive could have been done with a few more technical mentions like how the manipulation is actually being done.

Direction

Directed by Vikramaditya Motwane, CTRL is on point with what they want to convey to the audience – if AI has uncontrolled access to out life, life can be filled with more thorns than rose petals.

CTRL Star Performances

Ananya Panday is loud but this loudness works well for her character as Nella is an influencer who loves sharing everything she’s going through with her fans and followers. She aptly portrays the emotions of a twenty-something going through a breakup and wanting to get rid of her ex. She also manages to portray the perfect emotions needed when she feels the AI app is taking over her life.

Vihaan Samat as Joe Mascarenhas has less screen time and has done justice to it.

Conclusion

Vikramaditya Motwane’s CTRL is a perfect watch for the younger generation who are heavily dependent on AI and AI apps to go about their daily lives. The Millennials, Gen-Z and surprisingly the Gen-Alpha populations too need to watch CTRL to know the dark side of surrendering their lives and freedom to AI as the consequence aren’t pretty. From deepfake videos to influencing your lifestyle and thoughts, uncontrolled dependence on AI is harmful to not only the user but those around them too – and CTRL has shown this beautifully.

Hope our CTRL review helps you in deciding whether or not you should watch the Ananya Panday starrer.

Watch the trailer of CTRL here:

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