Mimi

Mimi lives in a town in Rajasthan and dances; she wants to go to Mumbai and get work in films. She needs money. An American couple visiting the town make her an offer: she will be a surrogate mother and be paid a large sum. She accepts. She hides the pregnancy from her family and the town. Then the couple withdraw; a concern about health arises and they leave the country. Mimi is left pregnant and nobody knows what to do. Laxman Utekar directs. Kriti Sanon plays Mimi and Pankaj Tripathi plays a taxi driver. The source is a film made in Marathi. The subject is how binding an agreement is; Mimi's position is not legal but an arrangement abandoned. Its second strand is comedy; the lies built to hide the pregnancy and the pressure of the neighbourhood are used as material. The taxi driver played by Pankaj Tripathi is its best loved element and most of the comedy comes from him. It was released on a streaming platform and Kriti Sanon received a national award for the part. Its limit is tone; while the matter of surrogacy is set up seriously the narrative keeps returning to comedy, and the last section leans on an emotional resolution. Who it is for: viewers who like Indian family drama and a mix of comedy and drama. Who it is not for: the subject is not treated seriously, the humour is at odds with it in places, and the ending is too tidy.