Second Chance

Nia (Dheera Johnson) is scared. In the first scene of Subhadra Mahajan’s Second Chance, we hear the protagonist’s voice over a black screen. She’s calling Kabir – her partner, presumably. She’s pregnant, and doesn’t know what to do. “Please call me back when you see this,” she drops him a text, one of the many that have gone unanswered. The screen comes to life, and she’s in the middle of thick snow. It takes a while for us to register that she’s in some remote corner in Himachal Pradesh. As details trickle down, we learn that Nia comes from a rich Delhi family, who own a holiday home in the hills. Overcome with fear about the pregnancy, Nia flees from the capital. With limited network coverage in the home (near a bedroom window), a silent boyfriend, and seemingly supportive-yet-distant parents, Nia finds her refuge among the caretaker family of the home: Raju (Rajesh Singh), his son Sunny (Kanav Thakur) and mother-in-law Bhemi (Thakri Devi).

Grief is too absolute an entity in cinema. Like joy, disappointment and love, it’s often treated as a ‘phase’ in a story: a striking part of a whole. It is seen and staged, either as a brooding montage or an atmospheric song or a transformative conflict or a sullen flashback about a character’s retreat from civilisation (think mainstream movies like Jab We Met). But grief — or its more familiar version, heartbreak — is actually a part of a hole. The pain is abstract, undefined, still, and often, violently simple. In Subhadra Mahajan’s Second Chance, this simplicity is laid bare. It’s not a time in life but life itself. It’s not a phase in a story but storytelling itself.

Writer-director Subhadra Mahajan demonstrates remarkable confidence in her debut feature—a lyrical film that explores grief, loss and healing in the spiritual setting of a hill town, characterised by silence and stillness. Set in the Pir Panjal mountains of Himachal Pradesh during winter, the film follows 25-year-old Nia (Dheera Johnson), who takes refuge in her family’s remote summer home after experiencing personal loss. This escape from family, city, and a painful reality offers Nia the opportunity to work through her turmoil and emerge from the darkness. Rather than surrounding Nia with noise or heavy backstory, Mahajan distils the narrative down to essentials. Nia lives alone in the cosy house, blanketing herself from the cold and her own pain, until she begins to forge an unlikely bond with the caretaker Bhemi (Thakri Devi) and her playful grandson Sunny (Kanav Thakur). In spite of class differences, three generations coexist and build human connection through small chores, simple joys, and wordless understanding—spurred by rustic cricket games, local delicacies, and a cute kitten.

The idea of a second chance is often linked to redemption, an opportunity to right a wrong. In Subhadra Mahajan’s stunningly shot, monochrome feature, Second Chance, the prospect gathers a restorative quality. The filmmaker slows down the immediacy, making second chances more about unlearning than learning. The difference is slight but lends ingenuity to a familiar premise. Nia (Dheera Johnson) is an affluent young woman who has retreated to the hills. Not much information is laid out, but not much is required. The film opens with a black screen, punctuated with her voice – shaky, disillusioned and desperate. She is trying to reach out to someone called Kabir over the phone to inform him that she has taken the pills. The next moment, Nia stands facing the snow-clad mountains. The juxtaposition of her frail being with the towering silhouette informs the narrative context, conveying her existential confinement. Still, the possibility of the ice thawing underlines the spiritual subtext of the film. Mahajan’s feature is as much about finding light at the end of the tunnel as it is about scouring light in the tunnel.

We all deserve a second chance. Does life offer it easily enough though? In the lands where nature blooms, time stands still, simplicity reigns and humanity is not a casualty, nothing is impossible. Thus, when a young girl, Nia (Dheera Johnson), returns to her hill home in the Himalayas, coping with personal trauma, heartbreak and more, her journey also transforms into one of self-awareness and self-realisation. ‘Second Chance’ is as much about personal healing as offering comfort to those who have been instrumental in making Nia feel whole again. Far away from the hustle and bustle of city life, as she spends idyllic time in a small village in the mountains, the baggage that urbanisation and modern lifestyle choices often impose is shed. First through her interactions with a young boy, Sunny (Kanav Thakur), son of the caretaker of her home, and more strongly with his grandmother (Thakuri Devi). Slowly, Nia not only finds closure but also ways to refresh, rejuvenate and connect with those far removed from her urban reality.

The gorgeous vistas of the Kullu and Lahaul valley become the backdrop for a story of loss and healing. Subhadra Mahajan’s debut feature, out in a limited release after a festival run (Karlovy Vary, Trivandrum), is about a Delhi-based young woman recovering from heartbreak. Nia (Dheera Johnson) spends her time being miserable, being coaxed to eat by housekeeper Bhemi (Thakri Devi). An evening with an old flame, visiting with his wife, becomes a brief distraction, but the rest of Nia’s time is spent watching Bhemi’s grandson Sunny (Kanav Thakur) being a boy — getting up to mischief in school, playing cricket in the lawns, waiting for his father to return from a trip to get his birthday gift. A playful kitten shows up, and becomes part of the menage, and when furballs snuggle into your arms, it is hard to hold on to misery.

It’s always cause for celebration when a quintessential arthouse film that did everything right from its inception to production tours the world of festivals, earns accolades, and finally finds a theatrical release. No matter what happens, a public exhibition in the theatre is one of the greatest joys both for the audience as well as the filmmaker. Subhadra Mahajan’s Second Chance had its world premiere at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2024 as part of the Proxima Competition. After the premiere, the film travelled to Dharamshala for its India premiere at Dharamshala International Film Festival followed by, among others, International Film Festival of Kerala in the Indian Cinema Now section. Shot in monochrome by cinematographer Swapnil S. Sonawane, it is a gentle document of a young woman finding hope and solace from the utter brink in the mountains. , as Mahajan has said in different interviews, bridges two worlds — the privileged, upper-class world of the protagonist Nia (Dheera Johnson) and the lives of Bhemi and the indigenous people in the mountains, one that is as simple as it is physically and emotionally exhausting. The film gets a theatrical release in select cities on June 13.