Ever read reports of children who are suddenly orphaned and sent to live with relatives? What happens to them? That’s the story Mithya tells.
Sumanth Bhat’s unusual, sensitive and haunting feature debut from 2023 is now available on Prime Video. Eleven-year-old Mithun’s father is dead. His mother has committed suicide. Mithun (Athish Shetty), known as Mithya, was the one who found his mother’s body.
Mithya and his younger sister Vandhana are brought to Udupi by his maternal aunt Jyothi to live with her family. Jyothi (Roopa Varkady) and her husband Surya (Prakash Thuminad) do their best to take care of Mithya, but it’s hard since they have a daughter of their own and Mithya barely speaks Kannada since he was brought up in Mumbai.
In fact, the pre-teen barely speaks at all. Scarred by what he has seen and remembers, Mithya has built a wall of silence around him. He makes a new friend and enjoys his bike rides, but he won’t say what actually happened to his parents, even after his deceased father’s relatives come to take him away.
The Kannada film chimes with this year’s blockbuster series Adolescence in its exploration of the effects of domestic strife on the psychology of a young boy. There are also times when the Rakshit Shetty production resembles the same gritty British realist dramas that inspired Adolescence.
Mithya – the title means a lie – isn’t your average coming-of-age movie. Sumanth Bhat’s screenplay boldly examines Mithya’s reaction to loss and lingering trauma. The violence that Mithya has experienced in his old home have followed him to his new abode, putting an almost unbearable burden on the boy.
You’re old enough to understand what’s going on, a relative of his father’s tells him. But is he really?
Rather than spelling out its themes, the 98-minute film Mithya relies on observational camerawork and ellipses to communicate its protagonist’s journey. The absence of manipulative melodrama result in naturalistic performances and relatable characters.
There is a recurring visual motif of Mithya with his back to the camera, wondering which way to turn when faced with a hard choice. The final scene is a moving summary of events, with Mithya’s face turned in our direction, asking us to bear witness but never to judge.
Also start the week with these films:
‘Little Miss Sunshine’ finds the beauty in a broken family
‘Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi’ is an ode to personal and political passions
Nickel Boys’ erases the distance between character and viewer
