I’ve always likened the opening stretch of a film to a train about to leave the station. The best films give the impression that the train has been running long before we boarded, and one that will continue after we get off. It’s during these opening moments that, as viewers, we decide if we want to get on the train and go on a journey the director has planned for us.In Aranya Sahay’s Humans in the Loop, this opening stretch features a woman waiting to take a test at a data labelling centre, in rural Jharkhand. Haunted by visions of a childhood spent with a porcupine in her ancestral village, one she’s forced to unceremoniously return to after her divorce begins, Nehma (Sonal Madhushankar) fails the test for a job at the centre.She has an infant tied to her back, as her friend pleads her case in front of a superior. “She belongs to the local tribe, and is undergoing her divorce. She really needs it,” the friend advocates in front of the manager (Gita Guha). “She’s a graduate and fairly acquainted with computers.”Sahay’s film really cornered me in the next scene, when Nehma is at a lawyer’s office – for the dissolution of her marriage. I have a soft spot for films that can deliver the exposition in the most lucid manner, and this scene is brilliant in the way it conveys reams of information in less than a five-minute scene. Nehma and her husband Ritesh had an intercaste marriage, it’s conveyed in a matter-of-fact line, when the lawyer (played by Sahay) asks the man, “Aap ‘forward’ hai?” (Do you belong to the ‘forward’ caste?)Understandably, there’s a lot of resentment. Nehma sounds like someone who is both gasping for air, while also ready to breathe fire – thanks to years’ worth of digested humiliation. It’s implied (in no subtle manner) that one of the factors is the mismatch in their social identities. During the scene, Ritesh reveals he’d like the legal process to go through as quickly as it can – so he can marry again.Nehma is not surprised by the news, but taken aback by its swiftness. It’s a final nail in the coffin of the Nehma-Ritesh marriage, which lasted a little over a decade. And now she’s back to her village with her adolescent daughter – Dhaanu (Ridhima Singh) and infant son, Guntu. Trying to adopt the new language of a deserted single mother, it’s also poetic how Nehma is picked for a job that insists Artificial Intelligence (AI) is like a ‘child’.The work at the centre involves labelling objects, actions in pictures, videos, which is the raw data to be fed into an AI, which allows it to process millions of prompts to regenerate something of its own. Nehma proves her diligence on the first day, when she differentiates raw turmeric from ginger.Sahay draws parallels between Nehma’s first few days at her new job, and her first few days as a working mother — mindfully inculcating things into her three children (if we also count the AI). When Guntu takes his first steps at home, we see the AI also taking its first steps.Sahay’s film adopts the awestruck gaze of a child. Having grown up near the forest, Nehma wants to impress her life and identity upon Dhaanu, who is mostly city-bred till now. She doesn’t share her mother’s enthusiasm for waking up early in the morning and going to forage in the forest. The divorce has apparently soured everything ‘urban’ for Nehma, which explains why she yanks Dhaanu out of her English-medium school in Ranchi, and admits her in the municipal school – where she’s sneered at by her classmates.She also entrusts Dhaanu – a child herself – the responsibility of Guntu, when she’s away at work. It’s probably too much to expect from a 12-year-old, and one Nehma possibly can’t see for how hassled she is with the other things.I loved how the job informs Nehma’s parenting decisions, helping her understand Dhaanu’s ‘rebellion’. She’s been so consumed by her own plight for so long, she takes any disobedience as an attack on her self-worth. Singh is sensational as Dhaanu – bringing a mix of immaturity and righteous hurt to Dhaanu. However, this is Madhushankar’s film all the way – who wears Nehma’s beats as an indignant, unapologetic, proud tribal woman in Jharkhand to perfection.At about 75 mins, Humans in the Loop has the scope of a brisk six-episode miniseries. There’s a wonderful scene about a caterpillar, one that the superiors insist are ‘pests’ – something to be eliminated. However, Nehma argues that it only eats the rotten part of a leaf, thereby protecting the rest of the plant.Similarly, when her manager tries to regenerate the portrait of a tribal woman from Jharkhand, the AI chucks out portraits of indigenous women from around the world. Delving into the vast space of one of the more pressing questions of our time ‘who gets to set the narrative?’ – Sahay’s film concludes that a technology’s peak needs and benefits from the insights of the so-called ‘downtrodden’.This is Sahay’s feature debut, and the way it showcases the disparity and contradictions in modern society is nothing short of marvellous. Nehma’s work involves feeding prompts into a machine, while the larger ‘machine’ (the society) treats her and her daughters as a statistic.Using the motif of a porcupine, considered one of the shyest beings in nature, the film emphasises on how one has to be cautious and mindful enough with their surroundings. Whether it’s one’s relationship with cutting-edge technology, or one’s progeny – they both deserve to be nurtured. It’s about our future, after all.*Humans in the Loop is playing in select theatres.