Director: Karan Kandhari

Stars: Radhika Apte, Ashok Pathak, Chhaya Kadam

The influence of Wes Anderson hangs heavy over this misfiring Indian comedy horror, which is almost redeemed by a great turn from Radhika Apte. Following her arranged marriage to heavy-drinking schlub, Pathak (Gopal), Uma (Apte) moves into her husband’s shabby one-room apartment situated next to a busy road in Mumbai. Uma is clearly completely unprepared for a life of domestication and lacks any homemaker skills or the inclination to learn them, despite her husband’s half-hearted nudging. Director Kandhari sets out Uma’s arrival and reaction to her new home in an extended wordless sequence, the film’s best, which works chiefly thanks to Apte’s wonderfully expressive performance, her eyes registering both dull surprise and a mild disgust at the life that has been imposed on her. Uma spends most of her days sitting by the street, then, after befriending (sort-of) her monosyllabic neighbour (Kadam from ‘All We Imagine as Light’), she slowly begins to venture out to explore the city, later embracing her more feral instincts with gory results. There are thematic similarities to recent wordy comedy drama ‘Nightbitch’ in the picture’s depiction of a woman frustrated with domestication going feral, but it’s Anderson that writer-director Kandhari chiefly looks to with drolly framed tableau-style shots, deadpan dialogue delivery, and wilfully jerky lo-fi stop motion animation. The lack of focus coupled with the dark random whimsy, grows very wearying over an over-extended 106-minute running time.

David Willoughby

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