Janhvi Kapoor is earnest in this bloated thriller :Mili movie review

The survival thriller has its moments, and Janhvi Kapoor performs well. However, the pace slows and bloat becomes an issue.

What happens to those who are caught in subzero temperatures? Mili, the Hindi remake of the Malayalam film Helen, renders us helpless witnesses to the horrors its lead character experiences—the dawning realisation that she is alone in a fast-food outlet's walk-in freezer, that no one can hear her desperate cries for help because the eatery's doors are locked, and that the mall in which it is located has gone dark and deserted for the night.

Mili's situation is terrifyingly plausible. Human mistake and negligence are a lethal combination, and that's how she ended up imprisoned, her extremities going red, then black with frostbite as the hours passed, her entire body buffeted by the intense cold. Will she survive the night?

Survival thrillers can be thrilling experiences, where the astonishing resilience of the human spirit is celebrated alongside the impossible situations intrepid humans find themselves in—trapped in narrow snowy crevices where they must chop off a limb to survive or gnawing at unmentionable things while stranded on an island. The greatest know how to increase the stress while maintaining the proper pace. "Mili," directed by the same person who directed the 2019 Malayalam original, is far too lengthy. The pace slows in spots, and fat becomes an issue.

There are some fascinating details in this. Mili Naudiyal (Janhvi Kapoor), from Dehradun, is a devoted daughter. Her kind father (Manoj Pahwa) shares her ambitions, including moving to Canada for a well-paying career as a qualified nurse, while remaining unaware of the presence of an unemployed boy-friend (Sunny Kaushal). The manager (Kochchar) of the fast-food restaurant where she works is a bumptious bore. Her coworkers are nice, notably Hasleen (Hasleen Kaur), who watches out for her.

What's equally intriguing is the sexism that emerges while the search for Mili is on. A haughty officer (Anurag Arora) takes every chance to disparage young women who are out "at night" with their partners and work late. But he's painfully heavy-handed, and the introduction of a nice officer (Sanjay Suri), who comes just in time, feels rushed.

Kapoor is serious, and you can see the work she has put in, much like Mili, who learns how to withstand difficult circumstances with the help of a cute little mouse. The film should have been tighter, and that would have improved it; my heart was in my mouth much too often.

Mili movie cast: Manoj Pahwa, Janhvi Kapoor, Sunny Kaushal, Rajesh Jais, Vikram Kochchar, Hasleen Kaur, Anurag Arora, Sanjay Suri

Mili movie director: Xavier Mathukutty