Second Chance movie review: A confident first film of a director with strong observational skills
Subhadra Mahajan's debut feature, out in a limited release after a festival run (Karlovy Vary, Trivandrum), is about a Delhi-based young woman recovering from heartbreak. Nia (Dheera Johnson) spends her time being miserable, being coaxed to eat by housekeeper Bhemi (Thakri Devi). An evening with an old flame, visiting with his wife, becomes a brief distraction, but the rest of Nia's time is spent watching Bhemi's grandson Sunny (Kanav Thakur) being a boy — getting up to mischief in school, playing cricket in the lawns, waiting for his father to return from a trip to get his birthday gift. A playful kitten shows up, and becomes part of the menage, and when furballs snuggle into your arms, it is hard to hold on to misery.
To watch a pre-teen boy doing the kind of things which do not require obsessively spending time bent over screens is refreshing, and Kanav is quite a joy because he is not made into a cutesy creature. So is Thakri Devi's equally delightful Bhemi who provides siddoos (a Himachal delicacy) and succour without calling attention to herself. These are people who are paid to serve, but the director manages to arrive at a juncture where you can see self-possessed dignity through their labour, the financial transaction leading to a supportive warmth.
Watch Second Chance movie trailer here
Some of the most engaging parts of the 105 minutes run time is Bhemi doing things she has clearly been doing for years — climbing a steep incline the way only those who live in the mountains do, setting up a steady zig-zag rhythm, carrying heavy bundles of yarn, chatting with twinkly intimacy with a familiar who offers her compliments over her snacks which she dismisses, but only after accepting them as her due.
The black and white cinematography by Swapnil S Sonawane is stunning, letting our gaze linger over the mountains, with their faraway peaks and twisty paths which have existed for centuries. Music and myths are part and parcel of the land's fabric, and the script weaves those in neatly without any exoticising. After a few initial bumps, the film does settle into an immersive groove, even if Johnson's Nia doesn't always shed her self-consciousness. This is a confident first film, giving us a director with strong observational skills.
Second Chance movie cast: Dheera Johnson, Thakri Devi, Kanav Thakur, Rajesh Kumar
Second Chance movie director: Subhadra Mahajan
Second Chance movie rating: 2.5 stars
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