An impish spirit drives Sister Midnight, but I couldn’t always keep up with it. Written and directed by Karan Kandhari, the movie begins with a bang, as it follows Uma (Radhika Apte) through the absurd early days of an arranged marriage to Gopal (Ashok Pathak). “This is some kind of exile,” Uma observes, even as Kandhari’s use of swish pans, needle drops, and colorfully comic compositions lends an air of breeziness to the proceedings. Eventually, the techniques become repetitive, even as the story begins stretching in bizarre directions. It’s as if Kandhari had a solid short film in hand, then kept piling elements on top to add up to a feature (there’s no cohesive rhythm to the narrative). Still, Apte gives a delightful, physically comic performance, while the costumes are both entrancing and evocative of character and context—as when Uma, early on, trades in the veil of beads from her wedding for a Jackie Onassis-style headscarf and sunglasses.
(7/10/2025)
