Sister Midnight is a movie as unusual, hilarious, and unpredictable as its protagonist.
The directorial debut of London-based Indian author/director Karan Kandhari, this wild trip of a movie sends you nighttime wandering by the streets of Mumbai with a very extraordinary heroine, a brand new bride in an organized marriage who’s as erratic and hungry as she is unfiltered.
Kandhari masterfully embraces the monstrous-feminine to mix genres and disrupt gender position expectations, set to a simmering rating by Interpol’s Paul Banks in his debut as a composer, all whereas delivering a bloody nice time on the cinema. (Critically, watch this with a crowd.) Culminating in literal torches and pitchforks after a tremendously unhinged efficiency by lead Radhika Apte, Sister Midnight is really one for the weirdos.
What’s Sister Midnight about?
Radhika Apte and Ashok Pathak in “Sister Midnight.”
Credit score: Magnolia Photos
Set in Mumbai, Sister Midnight introduces us to small-town bride Uma (Apte) as she arrives within the metropolis for an organized marriage to Gopal (Ashok Pathak). They’re each very awkward folks, thought of social misfits by their neighbours; impolite whispers about them being the “village idiots” are barely hid by their friends. Freaked out by their instantly shared residing state of affairs, they slowly type a thorny connection by circumstance, from which Kandhari builds a number of the funniest moments within the movie; when Gopal consummates their marriage with a swift handshake, Uma is not impressed.
Uncomfortable along with her new position operating a family, Uma is outspoken, disdainful, sweary, and gloriously bizarre — traits which make her without delay a neighbourhood outcast, a thriller to her new husband, and a superb protagonist. Although she asks for assist from her no-nonsense neighbour (Chhaya Kadam), Uma turns into bored and annoyed along with her new life, searching for journey (and employment) past domesticity, social oppression, and Gopal’s indifference to her dramatically awkward sexual advances. Following her instincts, avoiding the daytime din and turning into lucifugous, Uma begins what’s going to develop into her signature somnolent wandering by Mumbai’s streets at night time. Right here, she finds firm with a gaggle of trans intercourse staff led by Aditi (Navya Sawant), who sense Uma’s alienation and provide her first sense of neighborhood within the metropolis.
Quickly, nonetheless, Uma’s unquenchable thirst for extra turns into unnervingly literal, and regardless of her resistance to instantly animalistic urges, it is right here the movie actually attracts blood, leaning into gentle horror and even surrealism. Is Uma’s behaviour the work of a curse? Or has Uma had this energy inside her all alongside? Both approach, one thing smells useless in right here.
Mashable High Tales
Sister Midnight celebrates the monstrous-feminine by deadpan comedy
Credit score: Magnolia Photos
A genre-blending descent into private chaos, Sister Midnight embraces the absurdity of deadpan comedy with creature-feature horror. As Uma unleashes her suppressed needs in a extra comfy nocturnal realm, Kandhari channels Barbara Creed’s “monstrous-feminine”, because the protagonist turns into more and more unhinged however noticeably more healthy after giving in to her most genuine cravings.
Following within the feminist horror footsteps of Jean Yarbrough’s Common Monsters basic She-Wolf of London, Ana Lily Amirpour’s vampire Western A Woman Walks Residence Alone at Night time, and Julia Ducournau’s coming-of-age physique horror Uncooked, Sister Midnight has its protagonist dabbling in taboo sustenance to discover her personal feminine liberation. And right here, such a path of discovery can also be deeply humorous.
A mix of Napoleon Stratogiannakis’ fast enhancing and Sverre Sørdal’s usually symmetrical cinematography uplifts the deadpan magic of Apte’s efficiency in Sister Midnight. A scene involving a goat corpse, a trash heap, and an unaware passerby had me in stitches, as did a montage of Uma’s ridiculous repeated apologies, a valiant try to keep up a smidge of decorum amid her bloodthirsty pursuits. Upping the surrealist ante even additional, Kandhari recruits stop-motion animation to hilarious impact.
However the actual coronary heart of Kandhari’s movie is Apte herself, delivering among the best comedic performances you may see this yr.
Radhika Apte provides a phenomenally unsettling efficiency
Credit score: Magnolia Photos
As Uma, Apte performs a deeply unpredictable position. Uma’s evolution right into a bloodthirsty creature is just not certainly one of seduction and mystique, as such journeys are sometimes proven on-screen. As an alternative, it is a frankly hilarious path of survival, practicality, and private curiosity.
At each flip, Uma sits or stands centre-frame in silence, contemplating, turning issues over in her head, earlier than instantly springing into motion — whether or not it is deciding to shoplift a forest of pot vegetation or assessing an unsuspecting goat wandering within the streets. Every second sees Apte ship the exact same unblinking stare and primal focus, then uninterruptible dedication as she hits boiling level.
By the point you’ve got adopted Uma down the trail of no return, Sister Midnight turns into the kind of movie you will not need to go away. It is a movie made for the weirdos, the misunderstood, the suppressed characters who try to search out methods to discover their needs with out having a mob at their door.
Sister Midnight is now displaying in UK cinemas, with U.S. launch set for Could 2025.
