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Sister Midnight opened with something I wasn’t expecting… a film that came out weeks ago!
Okay, it was a trailer, not part of this film. Before most Indian-made movies, you’ll get similar trailers, but one was for LoveYaPa, even though that was released in time for Valentine’s Day and has since come and gone!
But back to this, and it has similaries with Opus, which I saw on the same day, that not only went in a completely different way from what I was expecting, but also had very unrepresentative trailers. In this case, that could be that while I read beforehand how it plays out like a series of brief vignettes, it’s done in quite a bitty way, but although it takes a while to get into – and after 40 mins of this, I was starting to get a bit drained – it did then pick up and take off, going completely mental at times!
Young couple Uma (Radhika Apte) and Gopal (Ashok Pathak) are newly-married, but the pair have absolutely nothing in common. Their arranged marriage came about because they knew each other from the age of 8, but haven’t seen each other since. Hence, while he regularly gets drunk with colleagues after work, this leaves her with nothing to do during the day, and most evening, especially later, when the alcohol means he’s no use for some rumpy pumpy.
Sister Midnight has a lot of very dry humour, which comes about early, when Uma experiences her annoying neighbours – and she asks to borrow a knife, gets what amounts to a claymore – but eventually starts to get on with them, as she wants to learn how to become a housewife and cook for her Gopal, as well as how to budget.
Plus, she poses the interesting question that since space is tight in their one-room flat, she wants to throw out the wedding dress, since there’s no reason to keep it. After all, when is she likely to wear it again?
I’ll avoid detailing any of the ways in which Sister Midnight becomes absolutely mad as cheese, but given how this wasn’t really advertised much, it’s not surprising that there were just 3 people in the audience, and that was for one of only TWO screenings each day, this one being 8.15pm on a Sunday.
However, Ms Apte is absolutely superb in this as Uma, I was laughing my head off at all the right moments, and I highly recommend it.
I was glad I took a punt on this film, since I saw four films that day, and as I got towards the end of my time, I had a choice between this or Black Bag. I figured the latter would still be around after one week, so opted for this one. I was right about that one, but Sister Midnight is still showing at my Odeon once a day, albeit at the mad time of 11.15am!
NOTE: There are no mid- or post-credit scenes.
Sister Midnight is in cinemas now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 107 minutes
Release date: March 14th 2025
Studio: Magnolia Pictures
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 (Super 35)
Rating: 7.5/10
Director: Karan Kandhari
Producers: Alastair Clark, Anna Griffin, Alan McAlex
Screenplay: Karan Kandhari
Music: Paul Banks
Cast:
Uma: Radhika Apte
Gopal: Ashok Pathak
Sheetal: Chhaya Kadam
Reshma: Smita Tambe
Aditi: Navya Sawant
Ramu: Dev Raaz
Sanjay: Chaitanya Solankar
Doctor: Suhaas Ahuja
Constable: Masashi Fujimoto
Henchman: Daemian Greaves
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.