“MAchiNe- A piece of metal with a heart of gold”- Anukul by Satyajit Ray.
Anukul is a 2017 Indian Hindi-language short film directed by Sujoy Ghosh with Parambrata Chatterjee and starring Saurabh Shukla. It is based on short story written by Satyajit Ray.
This short film revolves around Nikunj Chaturvedi
(Saurabh Shukla), a Hindi teacher, who bought a human like android robot (Parambrata
Chatterjee) a all- in- one servant,
from a salesperson of Chowringhee Robot Supply Corp. This
company’s robots have caused large-scale unemployment in the country as they
are replacing people in their jobs due to their work efficiency. All the people
are protesting against the growing popularity of the robots and the increasing
unemployment and so is Nikunj’s brother Ratan (Kharaj Mukherjee) who lost his
job to a robot like Anukul. Ratan’s dislike towards Anukul is seen as he harms
him but is unaware of the fact that Anukul can give him a high voltage shock
when attacked. Over the course of the film, it is shown that Nikunj also loses
his job to a robot. However, he is not angry or does not show his frustration
on Anukul like his brother or the other people, he is much calmer and accepts
his fate.
This
short film gives us hints of the future were there are possibilities of Robots
taking over the human jobs and professions. Anukul is portrayed to be a devoted
robot who serves his master diligently and has keen interests in books. The
relationship between Nikunj and Anukul is beautifully portrayed. A teacher-student
relationship is also seen between the two protagonists. Nikunj clears his doubts regarding the Bhagavat Gita and tells him that
one should always listen to one’s heart. Anukul respects Nikunj and his
loyalty towards him is seen throughout the film. At the end, the extent till
which he would go to fulfill his duty is displayed.
Showing
that the robot can give a high voltage shock to anyone who attacks it
represents the respect, rights and importance that is given to a robot. Like
how humans have the rights to self-defense, similarly the robot is also given
that rights. The underlying message of how robots’ lives are slowly becoming more
important than human lives is observed.
The
ending of the film sets the film apart. The ending can be seen in a negative
perspective- how the robots can be a danger to the society and can take lives many of human with their power of electrocution or in a positive light- how Anukul is proved to be a
loyal to Nikunj and takes a big step that is advantageous to the latter.
Overall,
the film is a terrific one! It does throw light on a lot of scientific
inventions that could help in the improvement and progress of human life (a
boon) and can also be a bane to the society.
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