Netflix’s CTRL Movie Review: Vikramaditya Motwane’s film fails to do justice to Ananya Panday’s compelling performance

Language: Hindi

Director: Vikramaditya Motwane

Cast: Ananya Panday, Vihaan Samat

Looks like Ananya Panday is improving everyday as a craftsman. Loved her in Netflix’s Kho Gaye Hum Kahan, then followed by Call Me Bae and now CTRL. It is good to see movies being made on subjects like how one gets trapped in the internet web.

Netflix’s CTRL talks about new-age issues which youngsters today are facing like the harmful effects of social media and how we have become slaves to Instagram.  Just hope this film becomes a wakeup call for all those who are looking for validation on social media. And why blame them when everything revolves around the number of followers you have on Instagram. Companies too are hiring people on the basis of followers, often forgetting that most of them are fake and are bought with money.

However, though the idea of _CTRL_ was good, it lacked the depth required for  a topic relevant in today’s world. Definitely it’s an idea that not only the youngsters can resonate with, but all age groups. The film is about Nella (Ananya Panday) who is caught up in a world dominated by technology and social media. It is time we speak about the harmful effects of technology and how we have become slaves to them. We allow them to enter our lives and they start taking charge of us.

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Brilliant idea by writer and director, Vikramaditya Motwane, but it could have been executed better. And I genuinely felt that this could have worked better in a series format because that would have allowed the characters to evolve. When it is a Vikramaditya Motwane film, the expectations are high, but sadly he could barely meet up to his standard of direction with Netflix’s CTRL.

In the film, Nella (Ananya Panday) is a social media influencer who loves the fame and name she gets by promoting brands. She and her boyfriend Joe (Vihaan Samat) run an Instagram page together giving relationship goals, but what you see on social media is not always true. Their entire life is about getting likes on Instagram and they get trapped in the web. And one day Nella catches Joe cheating on camera. Their love story takes and ugly turn. To take ‘control’ of her life, she makes an account on an app called CTRL, asking an AI-generated companion to ‘erase’ her ex. But life takes a complete U-turn to a dark tunnel where there is absolutely no light at the end of it.

The story is similar to Ananya Pandey starrer Netflix’s Kho Gaye Hum Kahan, but here we have an AI generated companion who takes control of her life. Netflix’s CTRL teaches us to take control of our life and don’t allow social media or AI to take charge of it. Make real friends and there is more to life than having fake followers on Instagram.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

WATCH the trailer of CTRL here: