CTRL Review: Gen-Z's problems Overtake An Interesting Screenlife Thriller

RATING - ⭐⭐✨ 2.5/5*

CTRL Review Movie Talkies :

Okay, so I don't know how many of you are aware of foreign screenlife thrillers like Searching (2018) and Missing (2023), where there is a lot of mystery and a lot of internet. We are habitual of watching mysteries and investigation dramas in real life, but not on screenlife. These films made it possible, and that's why they were able to grip us young viewers who spend most of their lives on the internet these days. Malayalam cinema attempted a similar genre with a gripping thriller, C U Soon (2020), which is strongly recommended. Now, we have a similar attempt made in Bollywood with CTRL, and by the title, you can guess what the film is all about. It's actually about AI taking control of your life, but it ends with an essentially negative message, which I found plausible enough to play along, but the emotional attachment was missing because of Gen-Z's casual problems like love and breakups.

The film is about Nella Awasthi (Ananya Panday), who meets Joe Mascarenhas (Vihaan Samat) during her college festival, and they grow close. They form a union called "NJoy" (N for Nella and Joy for Joe) and create a digital channel that becomes famous as they turn into a happy couple. However, this sweet love story is destroyed one night when Nella finds out about Joe's platonic affair, and they break things up. Sad and emotionally harassed, Nella decides to go the AI way to erase Joe's memory and allows the AI feature to take control of her phone, apps, and eventually her life. Will this decision put her and Joe's lives in danger? Okay, enough spoilers, I guess.

CRTL is written by Vikramaditya Motwane, Avinash Sampath, and Sumukhi Suresh, who have focused on Gen-Z's casual affairs. The idea starts with social media and its overuse to show us how influencers are actually making more money than many hardworking people because of social media engagement and creative videos. The film also deals with the consequences that one might have to face in this digital world, as AI does things easy for you, but it is actually taking control of your life unknowingly. This message keeps the film on high, but the screenplay falters at emotional segments. I can understand how the title is defined at the end because the leading character is going through a mental trauma. But I couldn't digest the fact that she was more unhappy for herself due to her breakup than what actually happened to her boyfriend. She wouldn't have done what she does in the climax otherwise. She was broken, I understand, but she couldn't be sad about the same thing all over again, which she had forgotten during her success days. This last 20-minute portion brought the film down; otherwise, it was an interesting film with an intriguing screenplay. Hindi audiences who are unaware of screenlife mysteries will like it much better than I did (due to my overdose).

Ananya Panday, being full of herself as a social media influencer and urban girl, has to be the best think about her performance in the film. Unfortunately, a similar substance was missing during the emotional scenes. She could have done much better than this since she was leading the show here with the entire 100 minutes having her there all the time. Vihaan Samat looks promising. That monologue scene on "Project Unicorn" is a top-notch act by him, but overall it was a decent performance. Devika Vatsa, Kamakshi Bhat, Suchita Trivedi, Samit Gambhir, and others have small roles that don't leave any impact.

Technically, CTRL was a very challenging movie, and the technical team has done well enough to get passing marks. An A-class if I can say so (not distinction, though). Watch out for the Instagram reel segments, the visual and audio fun, the editing of those videos, and screenlife covering multiple softwares and websites. You'll enjoy that for sure. The cinematography is not that good, I feel. The editing was good, as the film doesn't look boring at all except for a couple of songs. The production value doesn't have a big scale but makes the film look very real or close to reality. It was needed because the film runs on screenlife, not regular real-life live action. Vikramaditya Motwane takes a new challenge and successfully completes it just to miss the finishing touch. CTRL looks dam interesting for the first 60-70 minutes but loses the tempo in the last 20-25 minutes. Also, I couldn't really connect with the climax from the leading character's point of view, even though I feel that the digital era's victory is the need of the hour to let us know that we humans are defeated. Why wouldn't you link it well with emotions? That's the only factor where CTRL didn't take full control. Overall, a decent attempt at a challenging genre, but the climax let it down. Still, recommended for the innovative concept that every internet user can relate to.

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