Anukul- Satyajit Ray

The story depicts the book of Satyajit Ray, and the movie very well demonstrates the influence from Satyajit Ray on Sujoy Ghosh. The movie predicts the future of the world where even the household is done by a robot, which replaces manly labor. In the movie Anukul, a Hindi school teacher, Nikunj Chaturvedi who hires a robot to do his household chores. The robot is programmed to work over-time, with no weekends, and holidays. He slowly becomes a part of the house and observing things and people around. After some events which takes place at Nikunj's house, the robot and the owner have a different bond from that of a owner and his housekeeper. 

The movie's core theme is the constant battle between man and machines which spoil the livelihood of the normal people. If something works 24/7 without any excuse of leave, or weekends, but with a sole purpose to only serve you, then anyone in that case would prefer a machine than a man. The movie too is about the same where in the battle only one emerges, either man or the machine. When Mr. Nikunj was given the robot in the beginning of the movie from the Chowringhee Robot Supply Corp. Before 'Anukul', the robot was bought, the salesperson made it very clear to Mr. Nikunj that the robot must not be hit. Anukul, the machine was very much fascinated by reading books. At first, we only see Anukul as a machine who can only do household and cannot interpret feelings of a human. But with the observation on the people around him and his interaction with his master, he was slowly starting to feel like a human. 

When the robots got more employment, there was unrest within the humans because they were losing their jobs. A few days after Mr. Nikunj has purchased Anukul, Nikunj's cousin visits him during this unrest and grows in anger. His brother was unemployed because of a robot and there was his brother (Nikunj) employing a robot to do his chores. In the fit of rage, while Nikunj was out else where, Ratan takes the iron box and hits Anukul on the head. Ratan escaped then from a high voltage shock which would reflect if Anukul was in a life threatening situation. After this incident Nikunj takes good care of Anukul. He spends time with Anukul, talking about the Gita and Dharma, which actually made Anukul feel like a person and not a robot or a machine. 

In a few days, Nikunj too faces the lose of his job which was replaced by a robot just like Anukul. When Nikunj lost his job, his brother Ratan visits him unaware of the situation he was in. Ratan was very happy because he had inherited the wealth of his deceased relative, and he was also happy that how Nikunj was left with nothing. When Nikunj is away, Ratan strikes Anukul where Anukul ends up emitting high voltage electric current on Ratan which causes him a massive heart-attack and dies. When Ratan was electrocuted, there was a heavy Thunder too, so the death of Ratan was left out without any suspicion. After the sudden demise of Ratan, a lawyer visits Nikunj, and this is where Nikunj gets to know that the wealth inherited by Ratan was now transferred to Nikunj as he was the only living heir. Nikunj was surprised to know that he was the owner of 11.5 crores of wealth. 

In the movie, we are taught not to go by what the mind says but by what our conscience (dil) whispers us to do.