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‘Second Chance’ Review: A Soothing Mantra of Himalayan Hope and Healing

Indian writer-director Subhadra Mahajan's gorgeously restorative debut "Second Chance" seeks and finds solace in a Himalayan winter.

But without WiFi coverage, Subhadra Mahajan’s spectacular and serene “ Second Chance ” suggests, a different, deeper kind of connection is possible — to these stark, unearthly landscapes, to the people who’ve made their lives among them, and perhaps even to the self you might have lost touch with through trauma or tiredness, down in the busy, noisy world below. And just like Nia herself, Mahajan’s tender, airy screenplay benefits from time spent away from the consideration of her trauma, when in lovely, graceful scenes of domesticity and humor, we follow Sunny playing or Bhemi cooking, gathering firewood, winding strands of raw fuzz into balls of wool. Bhemi even has a little flirtation going with a twinkly-eyed local shepherd (Ganga Ram) who is unstinting in his praise of her fine-spun yarn and her delicious onion fritters, and with whom her conversations range from light joshing to more profound observations on the way their natural environment is changing.

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