Indian Cinema Now
Humans in the Loop / Humans in the Loop
Screening Schedule
Screening 1
- 15th December
- 6.00 pm
- Kairali
Screening 2
- 17th December
- 11.15 am
- Kalabhavan
Screening 3
- 19th December
- 6.00 pm
- Audi 1
Aranya Sahay
Director's bio
Aranya Sahay
Aranya is an Indian filmmaker based out of Mumbai. Having studied at St. Stephen's College, Aranya went onto study Direction at FTII, Pune. This was soon followed by assisting stints with Imtiaz Ali and Patrick Graham as an Associate Director & Director’s Assistant. Aranya has directed five short films, of which Songs for Babasaheb and Chait have screened at Mumbai International Film Festival, Signs Films Festival and Jaffna Film Festival. In 2021, his film 'Saaya' was selected as a ‘Film Bazaar Recommends’ project. He was a participant and grant winner in the Museum of Imagined Futures Impact Fellowship Programme in 2023. Director’s Filmography: Mirgi, 15 min, 2017 Songs for Babasaheb, 12 min, 2019 Chait, 16 min, 2019
Synopsis
After twelve years of marriage, Nehma, an Adivasi Oraon woman, and Ritesh, a Hindu Rajput man, divorce. Nehma returns to her ancestral village with her children—12-year-old Dhaanu and one-year-old Guntu. Village life is hard on Dhaanu, who lashes out at her mother, echoing the biases of her father. As their relationship frays, Nehma begins work as a ‘data labeller,’ training AI models to recognize objects in images and videos. She finds AI childlike in its learning process, and imagines it seeing the world through her eyes, a connection she longs to have with Dhaanu. As Dhaanu grows lonelier and more distant, always tempted to flee back to the city, Nehma faces the challenge of giving her daughter a reason to stay. At the same time, she begins to notice AI adopting harmful human biases, ones that echo the prejudice against her own tribal community. Ultimately, Nehma realises she’s battling not just for her daughter’s future, but for how technology and the world sees people like her.
Details of Cast
Sonal Madhushankar (Leading Actress - Nehma), Ridhima Singh (Child Artist - Female - Dhaanu), Geeta Guha (Supporting Actress - Alka), Anurag Lugun (Supporting Actor - Roshan)
Details of Crew
Monica Tiwari, Harshit Saini (Cinematographer), Swaroop Reghu, Aranya Sahay (Editor), Kalhan Raina (Sound Designer ), Saransh Sharma (Music), Shubham Solanki (Art Director), Sopaan Pundalik (Animation)
Producer Details
Mathivanan Rajendran, Sarabhi Ravichandran
Writer Details
Aranya Sahay
Stills
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