Kamala lives in a snow-covered village on the border with Tibet. Her husband went off to the big city to make money at a construction job, but she hasn’t heard from him in five months. She keeps trying to call his cell phone, but never gets an answer. Everyone tells her to forget about it; he’s probably found another woman. But Kamala doesn’t believe them and is afraid something has happened to him, so she sets off to find him, accompanied by her adorable little daughter, Manya, and Manya’s pet goat.
They soon encounter a mysterious and unlikable traveler named Nawazuddin, who is clearly escaping something, although it is not immediately clear what. Nawazuddin agrees to help Kamala, but only if she pays him. The journey takes them first to Simla, where the people who hired Kamala’s husband explain that he was actually sent to work in Delhi.
As they pass from the spectacular mountain scenery of Himachal Pradesh to the gritty, menacing streets of Delhi, Kamala keeps trying to call her husband, but without success. I wish I could find a cell phone that keeps its charge as long as Kamala’s. Maybe the same faith and determination that keeps her going does the same for her phone.
Because of Kamala’s vulnerability as a woman traveling alone with an innocent little girl and a goat, there is an unsettling tension throughout the film. I wasn’t sure if this was really one of my favorites … until the sudden dramatic climax which centers on Kamala’s cell phone.
