VIKRAMADITYA MOTWANE LOVE IN THE TIMES OF AI

The filmmaker’s recent movie begins as a love story but soon turns into a poignant take on urban loneliness and AI capitalism

- Ananya Ghosh

It is 2004. After their breakup, Clementine goes for a medical procedure to get all memories of her relationship with Joel from her mind. Upon knowing this, Joel does the same. In the process both expose their as well as each other's vulnerabilities to the employees of the establishment doing the procedure who then try to manipulate them and their feelings. It is a love story where even after erasing the memories their hearts trace their homes back in each other. But what if Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, one of the best love stories ever told on screen, was a thriller instead? But what if it was a thriller instead? It is 2024. Nella and Joe are the perfect social media couple, until they are not. Nella finds out that Joe is cheating on her and she breaks up with him. In an attempt to deal with the emotional trauma, she signs up on an AI app to delete all their pictures and memories from the social media. The AI app then slowly takes over the control of her life. And this is not a love story but a dark and twisted dystopian take of online apps taking control of our lives. It is a cautionary tale that highlights the perils of AI Capitalism and the need for cybersecurity awareness. Vikramaditya Motwane's Ananya Pandey starrer CTRL might just be a fascinating GenZ reinterpretation of the Jim CarreyKate Winslet classic Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, albeit with a delicious Black Mirroresque upgrade.

But point this out to Motwane and he vehemently denies almost taking offence. After a long pause he asks in a rather grim voice: "Do you think it is similar to Eternal Sunshine...?"