Sister Midnight: Weird, Wonderful, or Both?

If you’ve ever watched a film that left you slightly disoriented, totally absorbed, and deeply questioning everything you thought you knew about societal norms—Sister Midnight might just be your next watch.

The debut feature by British-Indian director Karan Kandhari, Sister Midnight is anything but conventional. Set in the vibrant chaos of Mumbai, it follows Uma (played by the compelling Radhika Apte), a young bride trapped in an arranged marriage that quickly starts to unravel. Her new life with Gopal (Ashok Pathak) is filled with all the things tradition promises—except fulfillment.

What starts as a quietly unsettling domestic drama takes a surreal turn when a mosquito bite ignites Uma’s transformation. Literally. From that moment on, she roams the streets of Mumbai by night, shedding the weight of cultural expectation and discovering strange new freedoms. Along the way, she connects with a group of trans sex workers, blurring the lines between the “respectable” and the rejected, the real and the imagined.

The result? A cinematic fever dream—a mix of dark comedy, feminist horror, and hallucinatory liberation.

Visually, Kandhari’s direction is stunning. Think Wes Anderson with Mumbai’s neon heartbeat pulsing through it. There’s symmetry and chaos, restraint and rebellion. The eclectic soundtrack (yes, Buddy Holly and Motörhead in the same film) only adds to the tonal rollercoaster. One moment you're laughing at a bizarrely timed gag, the next you're questioning the foundations of marriage, gender, and identity.

Critics have been quick to celebrate its strangeness. The Financial Times called it “lawless” and “irresistible.” Time Out praised its “vampiric” bite. The Guardian admired Apte’s ability to ground even the most surreal scenes in raw human emotion.

But for all its critical buzz, Sister Midnight isn’t a film that fits neatly into a box. It’s too bold to be just a feminist allegory, too weird to be merely symbolic, and too vibrant to be dismissed as art-house excess. It's a film that asks to be wrestled with.

So now we’re asking you:

Is Sister Midnight weird or wonderful? Or is it that the weird is the wonderful?

Let us know what you think in the comments.