Mithya movie review: Sumanth Bhat presents a poignant tale of loss, grief, identity and emotional healing

4/5

Mithya movie story: Mithun aka Mithya (Athish S Shetty), an 11-year-old boy, and his young sister Vandana are brought to Udupi from Mumbai by his maternal aunt and her family, after the kids lose their parents within a short span of each other. Torn away from the only life he’s ever known, Mithya, who is better versed in Marathi than Kannada, has to make do with a Kannada-medium school, and ride his cousin Anu’s ‘ladybird’ cycle, while also trying to wrap his head around the circumstances behind his parents’ deaths and being at the centre of a custody battle between his mother’s and father’s families.

Mithya movie review: A parent’s loss is tremendously devastating, irrespective of how old one is; it’s a grief that is not easy to come to terms with. Debutant filmmaker Sumanth Bhat’s Mithya is an exploration of tragedy and grief from a child’s perspective – something that’s intrigued me over the years, having heard gazillion times from a cousin who’d lost her mother when she was only a toddler, wonder how different life would have been if she’d grown up with both parents. Although she had no memories of her mother, her words, that a caregiver (in her case maternal grandmother and aunts) could never really fill in for a birth mother, have stayed on.

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This is also why the plot of Sumanth’s film struck a chord when I’d first heard about it. How does a child process loss? Is it easier for an impressionable mind to adapt and move on or are there lasting telling effects? Inspired by a true incident, Sumanth wrote a story about an 11-year-old boy, Mithun, aka Mithya, whose whole life is upended when his parents die – the father of ill health and the mother by suicide. He and his little sister Vandana end up with his mother’s sister and her family, with whom he appears to have a decent rapport, while his father’s family is also angling for custody. If that wasn’t bad enough, he’s also left wondering if there was foul play in his father’s death, like his folks have been suggesting.

No wonder, then, that Mithya acts out in ways he can, whether it is refusing to heed a call, stealing or getting into a fight with the older boys in the neighbourhood. But even though Sumanth teases that all the gossip about Mithya’s late parents may not be complete hogwash, the narrative never changes course to ferret around and present a clear picture of what transpired. You get a gist of what was from Mithya’s observations – his parents’ abusive broken marriage that became so after the younger child came along – and what will be, based on the young boy’s reaction to this understanding of the scenario.

Athish Shetty, as Mithya, is, no doubt, the focal point of the film, and the youngster effortlessly takes audiences along on the character’s personal journey, often in silence; his face mirroring his mind. The boy’s perfect, but equally so is Prakash Thuminad as Mithya’s aunt Jyothi’s (Roopa Varkady) husband, Surya. Despite his meagre earnings, Surya is determined to give Mithya a place in their home, even if it is at the cost of depriving his daughter Anu of things she’d normally have had. Surya’s conversations with Mithya about Vandana are some of the best moments of the film. The rest of the cast, especially the young ones, have all done commendable jobs in the film. Midhun Mukundan’s background score is just the right tone, ever evoking the right emotion, but never overbearing.

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What is most compelling about Sumanth’s film are the conversations the adults have in the earshot of Mithya, without ever giving a thought to what those words would mean or do to him. A child may be the protagonist here, but the film is for the viewing adult audience – there’s a lesson or two in there about what to say/do or not in particular situations.

Mithya movie verdict: Sumanth Bhat’s film is not flamboyant or star-driven, but what it has is a great story – a soul in sync with the heart. It’s the kind of film that ought not be dismissed as a festival movie.