Mithya: A haunting, searing portrait of bereavement and healing

Is Mithya the best film of 2025? Hard to say. It defies any concrete evaluation, as it floats in a world where emotions are alchemized into amorphous spirits.

- SUBHASH K JHA

Once in a blue moon, we get an Indian film that tears away a part of us irretrievably. Kannada writer-director Sumanth Bhat's film is a haunting study of grief and healing as an eleven-year-old boy copes with emotions that he is not mature enough to understand, let alone process.

The introspective procedural is left unvarnished and unbeautified: all we see is the raw, hurting boy, trying to make his way, stumbling and kicking, through a world he barely comprehends.