'Kaisi Ye Paheli' Movie Review: A slow- burn murder mystery dealing with the psyche of a mother

Language: Hindi

Director: Ananyabrata Chakravorty

Cast: Sukant Goel, Sadhana Singh, and Rajit Kapur

Set in Kalimpong, writer-director Ananyabrata Chakravorty’s debut feature, Kaisi Ye Paheli, is about a mother-son relationship that is strained and beyond repair. The story starts with a lonely mother who has come to stay with her policeman son. The son is hugely disrespectful to his mother and doesn’t like the sight of her at all. He believes she is the reason for his father’s death and the mundane life that he has.

Ananyabrata Chakravorty’s debut film is engaging, immersive, and will keep you hooked till the very end. Kaisi Ye Paheli had its world premiere at the New York Indian Film Festival 2025 in the competition section and was nominated for Best Screenplay and Best Debut Film**.** The film was also officially selected for the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne 2025 and was the opening film at the upcoming edition of the Yellowstone International Film Festival in Mumbai.

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The story of the film will shake you to the core. In fact, you will realise how deceptive looks can get. Most importantly, the movie is a must-watch because it has brilliant craftsmen who are known for their craft and not star status. The characters are close to reality, and it is a reflection of the society in a much darker way.

This film will make you realise that mothers are not always right and how layered characters can be. Unlike mainstream cinema, which glorifies mothers and praises an obedient son, independent movies like Kaisi Ye Paheli very courageously question the existence of a mother and kind of disrupt the entire institution of motherhood in a brave way.

Independent films have a style of their own, and don’t blame the technical glitches, which we can easily ignore because we need to understand that the budget must have been very low. In Ananyabrata Chakravorty’s film there are a series of deaths happening in the misty hill town, and strangely nobody really knows how it is happening. A senior police officer played by Rajit Kapur is called from Kolkata to solve the case.

Sukant Goel, the actor who was also seen in Netflix’s _Kaala Paani__,_ plays the lead role of a cop, Uttam, who dislikes his mother to the extent that he cannot tolerate her sight even once. The mother’s role is played by Sadhana Singh, who makes a comeback with this film and plays her role effortlessly. She loves the Bengali language and enjoys reading Satyajit Ray’s Feluda, but she wishes that his son also should love reading what she likes. But unfortunately, her son’s interests are very different. There is a scene where Uttam is having a conversation with his girlfriend, and he mentions, “Mothers aren’t always selfless.” This particular dialogue will definitely make you think.

The performances of each of the actors are very strong, and so is the story, which deals with complex relationships. When the story of Ishita’s murder is being investigated. Uttam’s mother (Sadhana Singh) impresses the other cop, Tenzing, and tells him his theory and how the case needs to be solved. As the film focuses on the broken mother-son relationship, the end makes you realize the games some parents play to control their children! Kaisi Ye Paheli has a strange twist that will shake you.

Rating: 3 and half out of 5

Kaisi Ye Paheli is currently showing in theatres 

WATCH the trailer of Kaisi Ye Paheli movie here: