Anukul — Short Film Analysis (Althusser’s Ideology)
About the film
‘Anukul’ is a short film, based on a story written by Satyajit Ray and directed by Sujoy Ghosh. It is a sci-fi story predicting the social and economic situation of a futuristic society by the entry of smart robots into the workforce. There are several hints throughout the picture showing that people are losing their jobs to robots and there is social unrest because of this. However, the story is not sympathetic towards the victims of this social reform, instead, it is carrying a message that change is inevitable and one should welcome it.
The Story
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2mqIgdae5I
The story starts with Mr. Nikunj Chaturvedi inquiring about a robot house help he wants to hire. The saleswoman introduces him to Anukul, a humanoid robot who can work continuously without any break. The specialty of Anukul is that he can read and interpret books as well as learn the ideology of his owner. Nikunj buys him on EMI and takes Anukul home with him. Nikunj Chaturvedi, being a Hindi teacher has a lot of books at his home which fascinates Anukul, and he starts reading those books in his free time.
The story continues with the entry of Ratan Chaturvedi, who is the cousin brother of Nikunj. He comes to visit his brother, where Nikunj introduces him to Anukul. Ratan gets furious about his brother hiring Anukul because he has recently lost his job to a robot. In the next scene, Ratan gets a chance to be alone with Anukul, where he asks him to return to his job. He also mentions the irony that humans make robots and then suddenly robots become smarter than humans. He then hits Anukul with an iron rod.
The saleswoman/technician comes to repair Anukul. She reminds Nikunj of a warning that robots have the legal right to give high voltage electric shock to anyone who tries to harm them, and Ratan is lucky to escape unharmed this time but she cannot guarantee for the next time.
When Nikunj goes to see his newly repaired robot, he finds him reading a book. Anukul tells him that he is reading The Geeta, but struggling to understand it. Nikunj tells Anukul that Geeta is his favorite book, and asks him to ask whatever doubt he has. Anukul asks him that isn’t it wrong that Krishna is motivating Arjun to kill his brothers and family members? Nikunj explains to him that Krishna is not asking Arjun to kill his family, instead, he is telling Arjun to do his Dharma (duty). He tells Anukul that Dharma is above everything in life. Dharma changes with circumstances. He mentions that his Dharma in school is to teach children, while in-home to fulfill the needs of his house. Likewise, it is Anukul’s Dharma to look after Nikunj.
Anukul further asks him, referring to the Geeta, how does one decide who’s wrong and who is right when both sides are fulfilling their duty? Nikunj tells that being right and wrong depends upon the side of justice you choose to be on, you’re right if you’re on the right side, and you are wrong if you are on the wrong side. Then Anukul asks him how one decides what is right and what is wrong. Nikunj explains that your heart (consciousness) decides what is right and what is wrong.
The next day when Nikunj returns from his school, he meets Kanchan Khatmal who is the president of “Human Servant Association”. Kanchan tells him that their slogan is “Ban Robots, Employ Humans” and “Free Bengal From Robots”. Kanchan asks Nikunj about him hiring a Robot, where Nikunj lies to him that he has not brought any Robots and Kanchan has got the wrong information. Kanchan believes him, and before leaving he warns Nikunj that there will be a war between robots and humans.
Later the day, Anukul asks him why he lied to Kanchan, and Nikunj tells him that sometimes one has to lie for the truth. Anukul asks how did he know that he has to lie right now? “By my heart (consciousness)” Nikunj replies.
Nikunj also tells Anukul that he got fired today because they employed a smarter robot to replace him. He shows his concern about not having income from next month and that he might not be able to pay for Anukul anymore. Their conversation gets interrupted by Rantan’s call from outside.
Nikunj goes outside to meet Ratan, where drunk Ratan tells him that he has “good’’ and a “bad” news for Nikunj. Nikunj takes him inside where Ratan tells him that the “good news” is that their Nibaran uncle is dead. Nikunj gets surprised, while drunk Ratan continues “who cares, he was a miser and he should be dead”. Nikunj asks him how this is good news, and then Ratan tells him that only Nikunj and Ratan are Nibaran uncle’s living heirs.
Then Ratan tells him the bad news, that Nibaran uncle chose Ratan as his heir and all the money and property of Nibaran uncle now belongs to Ratan, and uncle has left nothing for Nikunj.
Nikunj shows his acceptance and tells Ratan to wait till he gets ready and then they will go to Nibaran uncle’s home for the funeral. Meanwhile, Anukul enters the room with tea. Looking at Anukul, drunk Ratan says that after getting the money, he will buy all the “pieces of metal” (robots) and switch them off. Nikunj gets angry and asks Ratan to don’t say such a thing that can upset Anukul. Rantan argues that these “metal pieces’ ‘ don’t have any feelings.
Nikunj asks Anukul to go inside. Ratan starts laughing and says that we should beat all these robots. Nikunj yells “You will beat him? are you aware…” and he doesn’t complete his sentence. Ratan asks him to complete when Nikunj replies “Drink coffee and get sober”. Then Nikunj asks Anukul to get some coffee and goes inside to change.
Nikunj gets inside to change, he takes out a shirt from his wardrobe, and suddenly a thunder stroke from outside, and then a similar sound from his hall shocks him. He runs to the hall yelling “What happened?”. In the hall he sees Ratan lying on the floor, while Anukul stands beside him. Anukul tells Nikunj that Ratan tried to hit him, so in his defense, Anukul gave him a high voltage electric shock. But coincidentally at the same time, thunder stroked outside also.
Police and a doctor come to see Ratan, and confirm his death by a massive heart attack, maybe because he got afraid of the thunder stroke.
In the last scene, a lawyer comes to visit Nikunj and tells him that he, being the last living relative of Nibaran Babu, is the owner of all his property and wealth worth around eleven and a half crores. Shocked, Nikunj looks at Anukul, and Anukul pats his chest and smiles at Nikunj, and Nikunj smiles back.
Althusser’s Ideology and State Apparatus
Louis Althusser was a French Marxist philosopher. The analysis of this short film is based on his very famous philosophy and theory about ideology and state apparatus. In this theory, he states that the ruling class, in any society, needs a favorable condition for them to exist. Ideology is the key that can ‘reproduce’ the conditions for the existence of the ruling class.
To enforce the favorable ideology a state should have a ‘Repressive state apparatus’ (RSA) and an ‘Ideological state apparatus’ (ISA). The RSA consists of the army, police, judiciary, and all other administrative and political power of the state. Its primary constituent is violence and fear. RSA is used to enforce law and order in society. Using this apparatus state can punish any citizen who doesn’t follow the law. ISA on the other hand hit those areas which are not in direct control of the state. Social institutions like families, education, religion, cultures, and all others come under ISA, which transmits the ideological value of the state. ISA has the power to set a moral and social norm that feels very natural in society.
The movie ‘Anukul’ shows a situation where technology is so advanced that humanoid robots can do almost everything an actual human can. In the movie, the ideology of the robots can be controlled. They tend to replicate the mindset of their owner. This gives direct control of ISA to the ruling class.
Analysis
In the movie, robots replacing human labor are indicated several times. The reason why robots are more efficient is clear because they don’t take any breaks, don’t get tired, and can learn anything. According to political-economic theory, here ‘time’ as capital is the reason why robots have been so popular. They work without any break means they save more time, which increases their value, as labor value is proportional to production and more working hours imply more production. This shows capitalism in society.
Ratan and later Nikunj are the victim of this social reform, as more efficient robots have reduced their value. In other words, to compete with robots they need to work long beyond their capacity. And as robots are a one-time investment, people who are competing with robots would be paid less. Robots are programmed which intend to make fewer mistakes, which implies that any human competing with robot workers has no room for errors. This makes it easy to exploit human laborers in such a society.
Like the industrial revolution, when a huge amount of people lost their jobs to machines, in the story a ‘robotic revolution’ is taking away the jobs. The rage in the character of Mr. Khatmal and Ratan indicates that there is a protest going on against these robots. This indicates that this ‘robot labor’ is still a new concept in society and people are not used to it. This indicates a transition period of society, where no social or economic planning has been done yet to tackle such an unemployment crisis.
This can also be interpreted that robots have not only reduced the labor value but have also reduced human value. As robots can learn any ideology from their owner, it would become easy for the ruling class to create a force of robots replicating their ideologies, and robots can overpower humans, which means that with the help of robots ruling class can force any ideology on society. It can be assumed that in such a society any man with capital can buy a like-minded and loyal army, which again indicates an extreme capitalist society.
Coming to the actual storyline, before hitting Anukul Ratan mentions the irony that humans created robots and after being made they became smarter than humans. This indicates the reducing value of humans in their society.
The saleswomen warn Nikunj about the legal right of robots being allowed to give high voltage electric shock in self-defense, this shows the reduced value of human life as well as robot’s place in society. This kind of right to any robot can easily be exploited, and in the story itself, this right has been exploited.
In the whole story, Ratan has been framed as a negative person. Intense background music, aggressive nature, jealousy, and disrespectfulness towards others have been made a part of his character. The short visit of Mr. Khatmal has also been framed in a light and humorous character. His skinny body, body language, the way he talks and even his name has been made “funny”. In contrast, the character of Mr. Nikunj has been made more serious. He is framed in a positive light, as he’s a responsible person, who knows what is wrong and what is right, he is generous even with his robot and pays respect to everyone. Here the other thing which can be observed is that both Ratan and Khatmal are oppressed or exploited labor who have lost their jobs or labor value.
In classical Marxist terms, media is a means of production which is under the ownership of the ruling class in capitalist societies, and it can produce false consciousness. From this point of view, a classical Marxist can say that in this movie oppressed laborers like Ratan and Khatmal are framed in a negative light because (they) intentionally wanted to show that the person who has accepted the ideology of the ruling class is better than those who don’t.
In the movie, it has been shown that Anukul learns to play piano from Nikunj. In the beginning, when he touched the piano for the first time, he didn’t know about it, but slowly he learned to play it. This represents his state of mind. At the start he was blank, he had no ideology of his own, but after spending days with Nikunj he inherited his ideology. The conversation over The Gita also indicates this learning process. Geeta was Nikunj’s favorite book, which symbolizes Geeta as his ideology. When Nikunj explains The Geeta to Anukul, he starts relating everything written in the Geeta to practical life.
This aspect of the story can be understood by the concept of ISA from Althusser's reading. The company of Nikunj, who himself had accepted the ideology of the ruling class, that is employing robots as workforce, had transferred to Anukul. Anukul has been shown as a naïve or says blank-minded person, who has inherited the ideology of the ruling class from his owner. Another thing that is mentioned in the movie is, the school has fired Nikunj to hire a robot teacher. This indicates that educational institutes like schools have started hiring robots, whose ideology can easily be controlled. As a teacher, robots can easily seed the ideology of ruling classes to the children’s minds.
At the end of the story, drunk Ratan comes to see his brother, and tells him that only the two of them are living relatives of Nibaran Babu. He also says that Nibaran has chosen Ratan as his heir. At that time Nikunj had lost his job, and according to The Gita (his ideology), it was his Dharma to secure his and his home’s needs. That is the reason why he does not warn drunk Ratan about Anukul, that Anukul can give high voltage electric shock. He was about to warn Ratan but didn’t complete his sentence intentionally. Then he asks Anukul to bring coffee for Ratan, where Anukul has already served tea to Ratan. Then he intentionally goes to the bedroom, when Anukul gives Ratan an electric shock. This incident represents that Anukul has completely learned the ideology of Nikunj. Anukul understands the allusion of Nikunj and kills Ratan intentionally because it was his Dharma to look after his owner. This assumption is confirmed at the end of the movie when Anukul pats his chest and smiles at Nikunj.
