Liar’s Dice, India’s unexpected submission to the 2014 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film, is admirable in its combination of ambition and unwavering devotion to a specific vision, but the ambition is frequently stunted by a lack of resources, and the vision is more frustrating than rewarding. Making her debut as a feature writer/director following an acclaimed short film (Kelkkunnundo, aka Are You Listening?), Geetu Mohandas, strives to craft an unusual, uncompromisingly bleak road movie. Dice achieves that bleakness, but also a heavy dose of tedium as well.
It has been five months since Kamala (Geetanjali Thapa) has heard from her husband, who has taken a job in a city far from the tiny village where they live. She has a cell phone, and calls his number, but he does not answer. Desperate to determine his whereabouts, she bundles up her daughter Manya (Manya Gu…Read the entire review
