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.