Sister Midnight

Karan Kandhari’s enjoyably unusual comedy begins with newly-married couple Uma (Radhika Apte) and Gopal (Ashok Pathak) starting their life together at their home in Mumbai. Their pairing seems less a match born of love than an arrangement made due to the lack of better prospects, and the two do not settle easily into their new roles as husband and wife. Brash Uma in particular chafes at the restrictions of her new role, learning to cook from neighbour Sheetal (Chhaya Kadam) and staring at the walls while she waits for Gopal to arrive home, usually drunk and seemingly uninterested in consummating the marriage. After being bitten by an insect at a wedding, she begins to undergo a strange transformation as her domestic situation becomes ever more oppressive. Apte excels in her role, deftly balancing the comic with the sympathetic.