Upamanyu Biswas
Directed by Vikramaditya Motwane, ‘CTRL’ revolves around Nella Awasthi, a popular content creator whose social media relationship with her boyfriend, Joe Mascarenhas, comes to an end after she catches him cheating on her. Subsequently, Nella installs an AI app named CTRL that helps her erase Joe from her digital life. However, unbeknownst to her, the app takes rapid control over every aspect of her life, blurring the lines between reality and the virtual world.
The Netflix thriller presents a cerebral film that latches on to growing concerns within the modernizing digital world. With data, social media, and personal privacy colliding within the screenlife drama’s plot, a grave and chilling account is presented with unflinching authenticity. It asks valid questions about individual awareness, the practices of the dark web, and how invasive technology can be when left unchecked and employed as a commodity. Therefore, the film’s basis seems tied to prescient issues of the contemporary world and the reality faced by everyone with access to the internet. But is that really the case?
CTRL Focuses on the Dark Side of Social Media
‘CTRL’ is a fictional story penned by director Vikramaditya Motwane and co-writers Avinash Sampath and Sumukhi Suresh. The movie explores the pitfalls of social media culture through a gripping thriller storyline, punctuating it with incisive forays into the internet’s toxic elements. While the story begins in a relatively happy place, it takes a slow descent into the issues plaguing ordinary people in relation to their digital interactions. Probing questions about authenticity are posed as the protagonist, Nella, finds herself living a lie in front of the camera but leading a completely different one offscreen. Additionally, the darkest aspects of the narrative come to the fore when an invasive AI begins exploiting the insecurities of human emotions through its own agendas.
The movie mainly examines the exploitative nature of social media and how memory, human emotion, and feelings can often get tied in a virtual setting, which often has no borders on its privacy. As people yearn for more, Nella finds herself catering to their needs by becoming the face of perfection but lacking the imperfections needed to sell reality. Director Vikramaditya stated that the film revolves around the concept of sharing oneself with the world without understanding the consequences that come from it. He explained, “It’s all about – how much sharing is too much sharing and the dopamine hits likes and favourites give you. It’s about how much you end up doing for social media. It’s like a doomsday scenario and it’s not impossible to believe this.”
CTRL is a Topical Thriller About the Commodification of Human Experience
‘CTRL’ derives most of its central tension from the battle between human free will and an authoritarian AI app that wants to dictate everything for its users. There is an Orwellian fantasy lurking in its premise. Parallels can be seen with how rapidly modernizing internet practices attempt to take away control from people’s lives, particularly in the manner in which it preys on insecurities. It serves as the burning question of the film. Even Ananya Pandey, who plays Nella, chimed in on the topical concern by emphasizing how it can be particularly damaging for mostly the younger generation, who find themselves victim to a lot of seedy online elements and the mental challenges they pose at times.
Memory also plays a major role in ‘CTRL.’ With most people’s lives today stored in digital archives, a person’s memories can be attached to their social media avatar. In the movie, this becomes a central topic and one that was inspired by other films. During the development process, the scriptwriters discussed the enduring legacy of ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ as a key influence, particularly in the manner in which it explores erasing a loved one from one’s life. The same concept rears its head throughout the Netflix screenlife thriller. The director also revealed that the Spike Jonze-directed science fiction movie, ‘Her,’ had some influence over the writing. However, he hailed the Michel Gondry directorial as a masterpiece, even if it does not touch upon the topic of AI.
The Ctrl App is a Fictional AI Service With an Invasive Protocol
‘CTRL’ is built around the futuristic service provided by the titular AI app that Nella installs on her laptop, which eventually takes control over her life. It is a made-up application conceived by the scriptwriters Vikramaditya Motwane, Avinash Sampath, and Sumukhi Suresh. While it is not based on any real-life apps, Vikramaditya stated that it would serve as an interesting reflection of how AI has become a major hot-button issue in today’s society. “Given the conversations about AI, we realized that there was a lot more that we could say about social media, data and privacy in the guide of a straightforward thriller,” the director said. As such, some vague parallels can be drawn between the CTRL app and chatbot AIs like ChatGPT, especially how it is capable of mimicking natural human dialogue.
However, in terms of the app’s personalized aspects, digital assistants like Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa have more similarities. The story focuses primarily on the CTRL app’s invasive nature and how it eventually takes over Nella’s life and dictates every aspect, including her schedule and emotional needs. In many ways, it also provides an outlet for people to alleviate their loneliness, which is a prime concern in the case of Nella, who goes through a very public breakup and finds herself ostracized on the internet. It speaks to a greater issue converging on modern society, specifically in the domain of ethics, and whether human insecurities might be harnessed to the advantages of AI services like CTRL. Still, for the time being, it is a fictional service with no ties to reality.
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