Main Actor Nahin Hoon

A struggling Mumbai actress, Chitrangada Satarupa as Mouni, and a retired banker in Frankfurt, Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Adnan, form an unlikely connection through a series of video calls over the course of a single day. As their conversations deepen, the lines between performance and reality begin to blur, gradually uncovering buried emotions and unresolved trauma. Director Aditya Kripalani crafts an introspective indie drama driven by two compelling performances. Siddiqui stands out, especially in the emotionally charged climax, while Satarupa brings both intensity and vulnerability to Mouni. The film aims to be a layered character study, exploring empathy, anger, loneliness, and emotional unrest. However, its excessively verbose and self-indulgent writing often weighs down the narrative, making the drama feel repetitive and emotionally static at times. Since much of the story unfolds through extended virtual acting sessions, the film may struggle to connect with mainstream audiences.

The cinema of “strangers connecting on a call/walk” is a trope as old as time. It’s almost a rite of passage for independent film-makers with lower budgets. The narrative is inherently actor-driven. The context of this connection is what distinguishes a story that has something to say from a film that tries to flaunt its intellect. Writer-director Aditya Kripalani seems to have an affinity for this genre. His previous film, Not Today, revolved around the first day of a female suicide-prevention counsellor who gets on a long and vulnerable phone call with a suicidal man to stop him from jumping off a terrace. The one-line premise eventually became a medium to stage a clunky and meandering conversation — the kind that’s derived from thinking and appropriating life rather than experiencing and feeling some truth.

Doing bad acting good is an acquired art. Observe Leonardo DiCaprio in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019). In it, the actor plays a fading Hollywood star who has been reduced to playing villains for TV Westerns. While shooting for one of them, he is seen playing an antagonist who has kidnapped a little girl. The scene is campy and DiCaprio acts like an actor who confuses intensity for interiority. He improvises, throws the young girl (who was sitting on his lap all this while) on the floor. The director says bravo. The eight-year-old whispers in his ear that it was the greatest acting she had seen in her entire life. DiCaprio’s eyes well-up, he looks around and then at the ceiling. Even in life he is showcasing that emotion like an actor in a melodrama. But the whole scene gives you two feelings. You laugh at the guy but then you feel sorry for him.