CTRL2024

Before this film, Motwane had never made a bad film. After this also the statement stands and how!!!. He’s one of those rare directors who is changing properly with time and doing what he wants to do, instead of following the trends.  CTRL is Motwane’s “Black mirror” India edition that is so well written and felt like 100 minutes flew in seconds. And Ananya - OMG. She’s natural. I wouldn’t have even dreamt of calling her performance “Natural” and I am surprised I did. This is a major major Improvement. Some might argue “Oh she’s playing herself”.I would completely disagree. This had some of the moments that needed that immersion not only in terms of the screenlife format but also in terms of performance. Otherwise it would have been artificial - I believe it’s not easy when the format is different. Basically this comes under “Found footage” genre only if not traditional found footage. All the alternative apps they have designed here is commendable, especially AI assistant app that has a beautiful visual design/interface which is not at all beautiful from inside. SPOILERS BELOW - Coming to the climax - I see some of them disappointed with it. Abrupt ending? What closure they wanted? Motwane slapped us with a message that unfortunately we will have to live with it, as solution to tackle AI exploitation by a major company is not found in Nella’s world. This ending is more impactful as it gives a sense of dreadfulness about the future of AI than Ananya’s character taking revenge. Current ending is a solid one.  Of course we would have also loved it if Mantra unlimited was defeated by their own creation. But then as Motwane himself rightly said - “It has to be organic to the story”.