Directed by : Mathukutty Xavier

thande aansun peena hoga, phir bhi tujhko jeena hoga.. 

Janhvi Kapoor, Manoj Pahwa and Sunny Kaushal in 'Mili'

Spoilers ahead.. 


Based on true events, the story is about Mili Naudiyal (Janhvi Kapoor), a 24 years old girl who works at Doon's Kitchen in a Pacific Mall of Dehradun. One night after end of her shift, she accidentally gets herself locked in the freezer room with no one outside to rescue her. Knowing she has to survive atleast 6-7 hours if not more before the kitchen opens in the morning, she has to find a way to stay alive somehow in a temperature as low as minus 17 degrees. 

Didn't see the original 'Helen' so no comparisons from my side. The initial portions of movie are fun to watch because of the great father-daughter bonding between Mili and her father Niranjan Naudiyal (Manoj Pahwa). The use of 'Aap' and 'Hum' while talking to each other is something I really like, maybe some would find it old fashioned or criticise that no one talks like that, I personally like it since the 'Qayamat se Qayamat Tak' days. 

Before the scary incident happens, I like how they build the scenes up to it leaving no stone unturned that everyone effected by what is to happen would really be angry at themselves to have behaved like that. We got Mili's father not talking a word with her ever since he learnt about her affair with a different caste guy, Sameer Kumar (Sunny Kaushal) including some embarrassment faced while getting her home from police station. Then we see Mili isn't willing to talk with Sameer anymore because of his irresponsible attitude that landed them in police station the last night when he drove without helmet and having consumed some alcohol. And if that wasn't enough, the day Mili gets trapped in freezer room, earlier in the day she gets scolded by the manager and later on taunted by him again for eating food (lunch or dinner) which she then throws away not knowing that energy would have come handy later on. 

All of this is very good writing and it just makes you feel more for Mili and her well-wishers when they are all trying to find her. The entire freezer scenes are beautifully handled, I won't question a single thing that Mili tries to free herself because to be honest if I got stuck in there I would lose my mind even in 5 degrees cold. It was very tough to watch the part where she injures her foot and tries to get her nursing experience come to handy to get herself back. And I so enjoyed the little bonding she has with the rat trying to keep it alive for as long as she could. 

Some unwanted hiccups do spoil the movie. I felt there was a case of few hallucinations scenes because clearly staying even 1 hour in over -10 degrees would lead to mind going blank and insane thoughts would arrive. Then, the inspector part was overdone, it felt un-necessary to see him not send the location just so we can see how corrupt some of the policemen can be or in this case to let a certain cameo of Jackie Shroff come in handy that felt so out of place. 

I understand conflicts are necessary in such survival based movies, but again there's too much of it, if the bad cop wasn't enough, we see Sameer who knows finally where Mili is stuck has to go through the accident so there can be more delay to saving Mili. Also, when they all find Mili in the freezer room, it was stupid writing to show none of them had the sense of quickly taking her out of the room before checking she is alive or not, because for god sake she was fighting the cold and needs to be out of it asap. 

Performances wise, Janhvi Kapoor delivers another good performance, even though it's not the level I felt in Gunjan Saxena. Its a very challenging role and I like that she is taking up such movies, infact there's not yet a routine masala genre movie that she's done something most of new actresses love to be part of. 

Sunny Kaushal is also very good in the supporting role, I have seen him in just 'Gold' before this. Good to see Vikram Kochhar in a slightly different role, he still does get some comic moments. Sanjay Suri is efficient involved in the final act of the film.

Music of AR Rahman even though isn't special as we are used to, still is good to hear with the narrative, specially 'Jeena Hoga' track that shows Mili fighting till her last possible breathe. Also, I like how 'Hum bhi raahi' song is used at the opening credits where we see an ant freely moving until it accidentally falls into the ice-cube tray which is sort of metaphor of what Mili is soon going to face in the story. The background theme that runs when Mili is locked inside freezer room is pretty good one too, though won't call it 'Trapped' level good. 

Overall, Mili is a very good survival drama movie with performances from Janhvi Kapoor, Manoj Pahwa and Sunny Kaushal lifting up the narrative even more. Some flaws aside, I quite enjoyed it. 

My Rating : 7.5/10