Mili

“Mili is a film executed with sustained control. It neither pulsates with crackling energy nor overflows with plot twists, but it does not waver in terms of its focus.”

Rating: 3 stars | Full review

“Xavier’s script deftly dots the Is and crosses the Ts. No detail is wasted.”

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“Survival thrillers can be edge-of-the-seat experiences, where along with the impossible situations intrepid humans find themselves in– trapped in narrow snowy crevices where they have to chop off a limb to be able to survive, or gnawing at unmentionable things while stranded on an island– the astonishing resilience of the human spirit is celebrated. The best ones know how to ratchet the tension, building up just the right rhythm. ‘Mili’, helmed by the same director who did the 2019 Malayalam original, is too long. The pace slackens in places, and the bloat becomes the problem.”

Rating: 2 stars | Full review

“Where Vikramaditya Motwane’s Trapped was a more evolved, existential experience of an indifferently treated life, Mili’s predicament plays out like a scary episode she will someday shiver recounting to a crowd of awestruck well-wishers…. Cold is a vile feeling. Mili endures it at a claustrophobic degree.”

Rating: 3.5  stars | Full review

“Irrespective of what the reaction to Mili may be, this question is unavoidable: why is the Hindi film industry so bankrupt in the ideas department that it has turned to remakes of successful southern Indian films in desperation? The appeal of contemporary middle-of-the-road Malayalam cinema in the past decade has been the ability to spot potential films in daily life, the courage routinely displayed by filmmakers, the social and cultural rootedness of their works and the socio-political insights offered.”

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“The murky relationship between morality and gender shapes the central conflict of the story… It’s not Mili and Helen who need to be found: it’s the perpetual search for their virtue that needs to be lost.”

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