Second Chance Movie Review: A picturesque trek with heartfelt human lessons at the summit

Human meditation can be likened to the process of cleaning a house. You toil to remove the dust, arrange your things back to their places, and look at the clean space with a sense of pride and accomplishment. But the process entails months of thinking about wanting to do it, weeks of actually trying to start cleaning, and ultimately doing it because you have no other option. Healing from a trauma is not dissimilar to this. Subhadra Mahajan’s Second Chance is a subtle exploration of trauma, without the usual loud or overdramatic treatment. The film follows the story of Nia (Dheera Johnson) who, after experiencing a major trauma, spends some time in her family’s summer retreat in Himachal Pradesh, where unlikely friendships and the snowy environment help her heal.

Director: Subhadra Mahajan

Cast: Dheera Johnson, Thakri Devi, and Kanav Thakur

If you perceive everything in the world at face value, a river is just flowing water, a mountain is just one large rock, and even Gods are simply stones from those mountains. But to humans, each of these can possess the profound power of connection. Second Chance excels in portraying humans’ connection to nature by characterising each aspect of it with careful writing. For example, in the dead of the night, in a cottage atop the snowy Himalayas, Nia’s only companion is an owl she cannot see. Yet, she communicates with it in a desperate attempt to form a connection. Likewise, as Nia retreats to the Kullu Valley, a place that doesn't remind her of her trauma, she isolates herself further in the forests and riverbanks. When she presses her ear against a rock on the riverbank and listens to the sound of the flowing river, she gets a momentary escape from the storm of her mind. Such quiet moments, without overarching narration or dialogues, truly elevate the intensity of Nia’s suffering on screen.

Dheera Johnson’s memorable portrayal of Nia helps elevate the character. As a young woman experiencing major trauma for the first time, Dheera plays Nia with great conviction. When Nia meets someone or is forced to interact with people she has just met, her reluctance due to the intense nature of her trauma acts as a block for her voice to express words, an aspect that adds to the film's realism. Beyond that, Dheera’s expression of Nia’s angst and betrayal, without performing pages of dialogues, adds to the realistic representation of her trauma. Thakri Devi, as the wise Bhemi, gives a performance that is grounded and true to Bhemi’s characteristics. Kanav Thakur, as Sunny, without defaults to his name, acts as a ray of sunshine throughout the film.

Second Chance also excels technically. Swapnil Suhas Sonawane’s cinematography, coupled with the high contrast between the black and the white, brings out the emotions of the characters and the myths of the valley. In a graphic scene in the film, when Nia undergoes immense physical and mental pain, the black and white has been used to highlight her plight rather than the gore. This maintains the film’s focus on Nia’s plight and her trauma. Anirban Borthakur uses sound design that only highlights what Nia hears. Very similar to the first person’s perspective, the sound design is constructed in a way that when Nia hears the wind howling, we hear it as she does. When she falls back into her solemn state, the audio is softened to amplify the silence that fills her as her thoughts take over. Such little details elevate the film’s thematic ambitions.

The film takes you on a solemn journey through an artistic lens that is as picturesque as it is heavy. In Subhadra Mahajan’s debut feature, we feel for Nia, enjoy the scenic views, and drool over the rich portrayal of culture as we are treated to a holistic film.