Humans in the Loop: A Paradigm of the Endemic and the Universal
Nehma: Yes, Madam, did you ask for me?
Alka: Nehma Ji, what did you label a pest as today?
Nehma: As a pest.
Alka: What about that?
Nehma: That’s not a pest, Madam. It does not harm the plants. I wanted to tell you during the presentation. It’s not a pest. It does not eat the leaves. But only the rotten bits. So that the rest of the plant survives. It does not harm the plants. AI is like a child. If you feed it wrong information, it will learn wrong things.
Alka: You see, Nehma Ji. If the client says it’s a pest….then it’s a pest. Your job is to label data. Stick to that. Don’t try to be a smart alec . (00.39.36—00.40.38)
In today’s modern Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) ecosystem, humans in the loop (henceforth HITL) focuses on the intricate and indelible partnership between humans and artificial intelligence systems. A central component of HITL is the establishment of a feedback loop. This is especially critical for tasks requiring subtle judgment, contextual knowledge, or the capacity to manage uncertain information. To train AI models, data must be labeled by humans. AI models are evaluated and calibrated by humans. AI systems choose data points on which they have high uncertainty and humans label these points. Thus, HITL can, ultimately, support the creation of safe and ethical decision-making for autonomous systems. One of the areas where the ethics of HITL is critical is in decision-making systems — it is vital to ensure that human oversight and accountability exist in such areas. In other words, humans in the loop is an acknowledgement that AI and human intelligence are better when used in unison and it also makes AI vulnerable to human biases. A subtle, veracious critique and yet a deeply relatable work, Aranya Sahay’s directorial debut Humans in the Loop (2024) traces the overlap of artificial intelligence (AI), humanity, and indigenous knowledge.
Aranya Sahay’s debut is nothing short of a revelation: a work on the intersection between the personal and the universal, the revealing with the visually evocative. Set against the lush landscape of Jharkhand, India, this indie gem delves into the complex interplay between artificial intelligence (AI) and the human experience, embodied in the largely agrarian, indigenous Oraon community. In doing so, Sahay has crafted a film through the journey of its protagonist Nehma that is both a subtle critique of technological evolution and a moving celebration of cultural resilience. His film also bears witness to a remarkable degree of aesthetic and technical polish.
The story revolves around Nehma, a woman from the Oraon tribe, who goes back to her ancestral village after a decade away, to deal with a shattered personal life. Deserted by her upper-caste partner from a ‘Dhuku’ relationship — a traditional but legally unrecognized union — she arrives almost with nothing to find her village transformed with an AI data-labeling center. Here, young women like Nehma are hired to spit out the words, annotating surges of images and videos, teaching A.I. models how to decipher the world. This premise lays the foundation for a nuanced exploration of the ethical complexities of AI, focusing explicitly on how human biases during data annotation may reinforce societal prejudices. But the film is just as concerned with Nehma’s personal reconciliation with her cultural heritage as it is with her loving, sensitive relationship with her 12-year-old daughter, Dhaanu. Sahay juggles these strands with a light touch, keeping the narrative both intimate and reverberant with larger implications.
Aesthetically, Humans in the Loop succeeds. The film’s visual aesthetic, crafted by cinematographers Harshit Saini and Monica Tiwari, is nothing short of stunning. The framing has a storybook-like intimacy that drags you into Nehma’s universe with painterly precision. The foliage of Jharkhand—rich forests, tilled fields, ancient rock formations—become characters themselves, part of a dreamscape that seems both organic and hallucinogenic. Leitmotifs, like cave art , a porcupine leading characters, and rocks that have taken on a metaphorical heartbeat, function as poetic touchstones of Nehma’s journey and the fraught question of tradition versus technology. None of these visuals feel outsized or heavy-handed; they are integrated deeply into the narrative, building on its lyrical flow. The cinematography resists the temptation to romanticize tribal life — while showing its great beauty and value, it doesn’t lack nuance or complexity, and the film does not exoticize the challenges.
The film’s technical brilliance also extends to its sound design and score, which create an evocative soundscape to back the visuals. The ambience is subtle, though enveloping, a soundscape that matches the narrative’s meditative quality, embracing viewers with the whispers of Jharkhand’s forests and cultural cadence. The sound team’s work is detail-oriented and careful, making sure that music and ambient effects heighten mood without overpowering neither the dialogue nor the story’s quieter moments. The seamless integration of the two provides a rich, immersive sensory experience, capturing every moment permeating with life and interconnectedness between all beings. Editing, too, deserves credit, with its measured pacing. Moments of reflection are given space to breathe, maintaining momentum too.
Aranya Sahay’s direction is deft, blending intellectual rigour with emotional depth. The performances, especially that of the lead actor playing Nehma, are raw and powerful, mingling vulnerability and strength. Dhaanu is part of an ensemble cast that performs with veracity in a film that aims to shed light on the Oraon community, anchoring its quirkier themes in relatable human experiences. Sahay’s deftly symbolic, understated use of symbolism injects layers of meaning and variation, evocating the complexities and interdependencies of human and artificial intelligence, indigenous knowledge and modernity, and the world’s contradictions.
At its heart, Humans in the Loop is a meditation on collaboration — human and machine, past and present, individual and collective. It celebrates AI’s promise while warning of its perils, especially when human bias seeps into its code. But it is Nehma’s personal odyssey — her struggle to reclaim her identity and create a path for her daughter — that provides the film its heartbeat. The film is an intellectually engaging debut and establishes Sahay as a filmmaker to watch. And his maiden venture is indie filmmaking at its best — poignant, purposeful and deeply human.
Pranjal Borah
Edited by Savina Petkova
©FIPRESCI 2025