Jalpari: The Desert Mermaid

Bollywood • G • Directed by: Nila Madhab Panda • 94 minutes

Two city-bred kids, Shreya (Lehar Khan) and Sam (Krishang Trivedi), travel to their dusty Haryana village for a vacation with their parents. What happens there is an adventure, which comes packed with significant life lessons. It's not the idyllic village of their dreams but a problem-ridden place with dried up ponds, unfriendly villagers, unspoken secrets, out-of-bounds spaces, a child-eating daayan (Witch) and no girls, a reason why wives are imported from other states. In the backdrop of this engrossing adventure, the social issue of female foeticide is subtly interwoven without being preachy and melodramatic.