Cast: Keerthy Suresh, Jagapathi Babu, Nadhiya, Naresh

There are bad movies, then, there are movies so bad that they offend you. Sloppy writing coupled with a weak storyline, poor dialogues that sound like lectures, bad performances, and scenes that will make you roll your eyes off your socket, Narendra Nath’s Miss India feels like a movie written by a bored seven-year-old. Released on Netflix the Keerthy Suresh Starrer is a two-hour-long Tea Advertisement that’s tough to sit through.

Manasa Samuythka (Keerthy Suresh), is the youngest among three siblings in a small town middle class family. She aspires to do an MBA and become a businesswoman at an age of ten? She also promises  her grandpa an Ayurvedic doctor that she will make him famous and ,proud of her one day. Fast forward to fifteen years.  tragedy strikes and the whole family moves to San Francisco.

Mansa continues her final year of MBA at the University of San Francisco with the same dream of wanting to start a business. Post her graduation, however, she is reminded by her male chauvinistic brother that business is not for women and that she should take up a regular paying job. However, Samyuthka is set to prove him and the world wrong. What follows is a silly tale that feels like a long tea advertisement. The triteness and hollowness of the movie can be summed up by the storyline of how a small-town girl moves to America opens a Tea (Chai) shop and becomes a millionaire in two months. 

Nothing in the movie at any point in time makes any sense. Like for instance Why is everyone in the states understanding Telugu? How is this “Middle class” family able to afford to live in a villa? Why does this place feel more like Hyderabad? And why do all the Americans in the movie sound like Siri (not joking!)?  

The story is built around good intent that probably sounded good on paper. It aims to talk about patriarchy in the business world and how women entrepreneurs face sexism. And about how women’s ideas, ideals, and career goals are generally taken less seriously. The core idea of the movie is something a lot of women can relate to, yet it’s impossible not to think that this story might have been better served. 

Rating: 1/5

Importance to Women: 5/5