Mili is the official remake of the 2019 Malayalam movie, Helen which starred Anna Ben in the titular role. Upon its release, Helen garnered a lot of appreciation and even won two National awards. The director Mathukutty Xavier has now taken the mantle of telling the story in Hindi. Mili stars Janhvi Kapoor in the titular role with Sunny Kaushal and Manoj Pahwa playing the other leads. Does the Hindi remake live up to the expectations set by the Malayalam original? Read this review of Mili to find out.

Janhvi’s best performance to date

In Mili, Janhvi plays, well, Mili, a BSc Nursing graduate, currently studying for IELTS and working part-time at Doon’s Kitchen. She is trying to make her way to Canada for a better life for herself and her father (Manoj Pahwa). She has two important men in her life, her father and her boyfriend, Sameer Kumar (Sunny Kaushal). Unfortunately, the two men meet in the unlikeliest of circumstances leading to a semi-fallout between the father-daughter duo. Mili follows Murphy’s law. Anything that can go wrong, can and will go wrong. And that’s exactly what happens. On an already bad day, Mili gets locked in her restaurant’s freezer with no way out. And now, it’s a struggle to survive.

Janhvi is convincing as the small-town girl with big dreams. But where she lacks conviction is as a girl who doesn’t know how to speak English. For someone who is struggling with the language, her diction is way too perfect. But, it’s only in the first half that Janhvi struggles. By the second half, she owns the show and commands your attention. As Mili struggles to survive in the sub-zero temperature, Janhvi captures her fears and desperation quite well. She could have easily teetered on to the over-dramatic territory, but Janhvi Kapoor does a balanced job.

Not as impactful as the original

Honestly, Mili is only impactful if you have not watched Helen. In a day and age where we are served global content with subtitles on a platter, one needs to question the need for a scene-by-scene remake of a Malayalam movie. You know everything that will happen, even the dialogues are largely a translation of the original, so nothing new there either. What’s sad is that, despite the frame-to-frame remake, Mili still manages to lose some of the more salient parts of Helen.

The different religions of Helen and Azhar were turning points in the original, which gets lost in translation. Similarly, the eeriness of the original, the sense of foreboding since the very beginning that’s inherent in Helen is lacking in Mili.

Mili is not a bad movie, but only if you haven’t watched the original. Because if you have, you’ll end up wondering why you are bothering with the same thing in a different language with a different cast.

Mili is now running in theatres.

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