CTRL Movie Review: When Vikramaditya Motwane roped in Ananya Panday for a film, it took many by surprise. What and how would they—belonging to two starkly contrasting schools of cinema—put together a creation? And this shock continues to follow you as you watch CTRL, born out of a cinematic marriage between Motwane and Panday. CTRL is truly genre-defining. It’s trailblazing too, as it’s not every day that we get to experience a Bollywood screenlife cyber-thriller. Sure, parts of it may seem borrowed from an eclectic variety of art, but we aren’t complaining.
While its themes may remind you of Her, starring Joaquin Phoenix and the voice of Scarlett Johansson, or Aneesh Chaganty’s Searching, headlined by John Cho, the one thing CTRL is truly inspired by is life, which of late shares an almost symbiotic relationship with social media. Unlike Panday’s last outing Call Me Bae, which explores the upside of social media and how it can create change, CTRL lies on the opposite end of the spectrum. It encapsulates and reiterates the dangers of technology.
What starts as a companion helping to erase loneliness and provide livelihood can—like slow poison—consume you and render you powerless. CTRL portrays this in the most thrilling and stimulating fashion. The film revolves around a young couple—Nella Awasthi and Joe Mascarenhas. More correctly, they’re a famous influencer couple in a five-year relationship. Together, they run a YouTube channel called NJoy and enjoy a massive fan following. NJoy, much like most channels, is a library of vlogs encapsulating their day-to-day life.
On their fifth anniversary, Nella decides to go live to surprise Joe, but when she reaches the restaurant, she catches him making out with his colleague, Shonali. This is captured on the livestream, leaving Nella enraged and frustrated, much like her fans, who looked up to her and Joe as the perfect couple. The showdown video goes viral, with Yashraj Mukhate making a parody, while Tanmay Bhatt, Rohan Joshi, and others engage in a virtual roundtable discussion deriding the now-broken relationship.
In a fit of rage, Nella downloads an app called CTRL, which introduces her to a virtual assistant with AI (played by Aparshakti Khurana in a cameo). This AI helps her erase Joe from their pictures and videos. But soon, this AI entity, who she names Allen—a palindrome for Nella—begins to control her life. When Joe actually goes missing, she finds herself caught in a sinister and lethal web of manipulation. The lines between reality and virtual reality blur, and Nella realizes how AI is misused by conglomerates.
Motwane opts for the screenlife format to tell this story, making the overall experience more immersive. Credit goes to the technical department of CTRL for executing this narrative uniquely. The storytelling is complex, but its relevance is so high that you won’t get lost in its labyrinth. The makers had a lofty ambition and successfully meet their goal, leaving the audience thinking, squirming, and biting their nails in the second half.
At 1 hour and 39 minutes, CTRL is a gripping and taut thriller that hardly ever leaves room for boredom. It’s crisp and raises many questions without turning preachy. How much sharing is too much on social media? How willing are we to let an AI assistant control our lives? Is sharing glimpses of life just an inadvertent way of seeking validation and gaining more followers? After Nella and Joe break up, he matter-of-factly asks if her reason for surprising him came from love or a desire to make a statement on social media, setting the tone for the rest of the film.
Once you watch the movie, you’ll understand why Panday is the perfect fit for the part. The young actor, constantly scrutinized on social media, does a fantastic job as Nella. Her helplessness as she frantically tracks Joe after his disappearance, while dealing with endorsement deals as an influencer, is palpable. After Kho Gaye Hum Kahan and Call Me Bae, Panday plays to her strengths again, and Motwane deserves credit for this.
You’ll be left wondering each time Nella makes a move, calculating its impact on her social media standing as she spirals into the darkest corners of the internet. Her deepest fear is losing her social currency and having to return to Delhi to join her father’s bakery. While this may seem like a trivial struggle, its gravity becomes evident as you get absorbed into the narrative.
After Call Me Bae, Panday once again shares the screen with Vihaan Samat, who plays Joe. He too does a great job and portrays his character with earnestness. But it’s Panday who steals the show. This is her living through an era as a social media-obsessed youngster (a hat-trick for her), and it’s a delight to watch her unravel different shades as an actor. What helps highlight these performances is the smart, sharp, and solid screenplay by Motwane, Avinash Sampath, and Sumukhi Suresh.
CTRL is nothing like what you would imagine. It’s packed with thrill, surprise and novelty. The new-age, uber-cool music by Sneha Khanwalkar is the cherry on top. Its spiffy cinematography by Pratik Shah, editing by Jahaan Noble, and experimental treatment make it a winner. It’s unpredictable, thoroughly engaging and cerebral. By the end, you’ll be left with a whole lot to think about, making it an unconventional entertainer. Here’s to more off-the-road collaborations!
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