Sister Midnight (15)

Writer-director Karan Kandhari’s feature debut is a surreal, punkish and distinctive comedy, tinged with offbeat horror, stylistically fresh, inventive and magical.

Caught in a very new, very awkward arranged marriage, acerbic Uma and soft-spoken Gopal arrive in Mumbai, their home a tiny shack with paper-thin walls. At first, Uma does her best to cope with the heat, her lack of domestic skills, her bumbling spouse and their nosy neighbours, but the nocturnal world of the city grabs hold of her. Compulsively, Uma succumbs to her most feral impulses. Boosted by Apte’s gift for physical comedy, this is an audacious and idiosyncratic story about a woman simply repudiating patriarchal norms.