Sister Midnightis one of the more peculiar titles entering the 2025 movie marketplace, and it certainly deserves to be on more viewers' radars. TheHindi-language movieis the feature-length directorial debut of London-based Indian artist Karan Kandhari, who also penned the screenplay. While it isn’t flawless, as no debut is, it sees Kandhari transitioning into the medium almost seamlessly.
Sister Midnightfollows newlywed couple Uma (Radhika Apta, perhaps best known for starring opposite Ayushmann Khurrana and Tabu in the 2018Bollywood movieAndhadhun) and Gopal (Ashok Pathak ofPanchayat), who move into a small Mumbai apartment, whereUma immediately feels smothered by the expectation that she will gladly assume all the housework duties— and the assumption that she even knows how to properly perform them in the first place. Uma’s intense suffocation from her new circumstances results in her acting out in a variety of ways that become increasingly dangerous to herself and others.
Sister Midnight Wields Its Central Theme Well
It Feels Nothing Like Recent Movies That Tell Similar Stories
In recent years, there have been no shortage of movies about the dark side of marriage, motherhood, and the myriad of societal pressures on women. In the English-speaking world alone, this includes the Charlize Theron dramaTully, the early Florence Pugh vehicleLady Macbeth, and the recentAmy Adams movieNightbitch,the latter of which has many surface-level similarities toSister Midnight. However,the 2025 movie stands out among the packfor its sardonic sense of humor, its completely assured sense of self, and its patience.
Nightbitch, which follows a stay-at-home mom who suspects she may be transforming into a werewolf at night, is adapted from the novel of the same name by Rachel Yoder.
This may not seem like much of a compliment, but believe me, the prevailing virtue ofSister Midnightis indeed its patience.It has faith that audiences will become invested in Uma’s lifeto the point they will be willing to wait the better part of an hour for major plot developments. At least in my case, it ultimately proved to be correct in that belief, proving that it was very right to wait so long for those developments.
The sudden intrusion of an increasing number of magical realism elements into the movie would have felt jarring if it had happened earlier on, without the movie taking its time to repeatedly pummel us with the mind-numbing torture of Uma’s predicament. Kandhari uses repetition and jarring cuts to sledgehammer the audience into understanding her mental state, and while this is a brutal approach, it is never boring becauseUma’s increasingly desperate attempts to escape her own life are consistently compellingand presented with a deft touch that tempers their darkness with a slow drip of comedy.
Sister Midnight Is Uncompromisingly Itself
This Is Both Its Biggest Strength & Its Biggest Weakness
The biggest demerit ofSister Midnightis thatthe movie it becomes is very much an acquired taste, and it does not necessarily feel of a piece with the type of movie it starts off as being. I personally was much more compelled by Uma’sJeanne Dielman-esque journey in the first half, whereas I felt like the second half was just a degree or two away from my wavelength. I have faith that many other viewers are on that wavelength, though, and I admire the movie’s uncompromising commitment to being itself.
In fact, that may be the best thing about the movie. Every step of the way, there is a sense that Kandhari knows exactly what he is doing when balancing his tones, so there is no need to worry about what sharp turn the movie might take next. No matter how far afield it flies,it always feels consistent with itself, which is a nearly impossible high-wire feat considering how substantially differently the final act of the movie looks and behaves when compared to the first act.
Because of all this, I wanted to likeSister Midnightconsiderably more than I did. There’s a difference between respecting a movie and loving a movie, and I couldn’t drag myself across that line. However,there is a lot to recommend it, including a strong visual sense (especially when it comes to the many scenes that feature single light sources), solid performances (particularly Apte, who commands every second of her screentime, which is essentially every second of the movie), and plenty of kooky moments the likes of which are not going to be seen in any other movie this year.
Sister Midnight
Cast
A newlywed bride in Mumbai finds her arranged marriage unraveling as she transforms into a feral, misanthropic force, navigating a surreal descent into chaos and rebellion.
