Gold Fish Movie Cast, Story, and Reviews

🎬 About the Film

Title: Goldfish
Director: Pushan Kripalani
Writers: Pushan Kripalani, Arghya Lahiri
Main Cast:

• Kalki Koechlin as Anamika
• Deepti Naval as Sadhana
• Rajit Kapur, Bharti Patel, Gordon Warnecke, Shenalyn Monteiro

Language: English and Hindi (Bilingual)
Country: United Kingdom and India (UK-India co-production)
Premiere: Busan International Film Festival 2022
Runtime: Approximately 105 minutes
Filming Location: Suburban England, primarily within a British-Asian community

🧠 Core Themes

• Memory and Dementia
• Mother-Daughter Relationship
• Immigrant Identity & Cultural Displacement
• Forgiveness, Guilt, and Reconciliation

🧵 In-Depth Storyline (Told Like a Novel)

In a quiet immigrant neighborhood in suburban England, the air is always slightly damp, and the streets seem to carry stories whispered in many languages. Anamika, a sharp, emotionally distant woman in her 30s, returns to her childhood home after many years. Her mother, Sadhana, a semi-retired classical Indian singer, is slipping into the early stages of dementia.

Sadhana was never an easy woman. She was proud, cold, and deeply tied to her cultural heritage—traits that clashed with Anamika’s more assimilated, British-Indian worldview. Their past is littered with unspoken accusations: emotional neglect, rebellion, and disappointment. Now, with Sadhana’s memories dissolving like ink in water, Anamika is forced to return—not just physically, but emotionally, mentally, and culturally.

She doesn’t come back to heal. She comes back because there’s no one else. And yet, the past won’t stay silent.

🎭 Character-Driven Conflict

Sadhana’s descent into confusion brings clarity to Anamika’s own fractured memories. Scenes unfold with quiet power: a dinner burned in the oven, a misplaced letter from decades ago, a song once sung to comfort and control. Anamika finds herself both daughter and reluctant caregiver, trying to make peace with a mother who now drifts between lucidity and loss.

Surrounding them are neighbors—immigrant women who understand Sadhana more than Anamika ever could. These women form a circle of memory-keepers, holding fragments of Sadhana’s story that Anamika never heard. Through their conversations, Anamika begins to see her mother not as the harsh parent she remembered, but as a woman who bore the weight of migration, cultural pressure, and loneliness.

📽️ Cinematography and Atmosphere

Pushan Kripalani, also a cinematographer, crafts the film with intimate stillness. The camera lingers in narrow hallways, quiet kitchens, and foggy streets—amplifying the emotional claustrophobia and the loneliness that creeps even in company. The visuals are painterly, with dim lighting, earthy tones, and reflections used symbolically throughout.

🎼 Music and Sound

Sadhana’s character is rooted in Indian classical music, and her moments of lucidity are often triggered by ragas and lullabies. These musical sequences are haunting, functioning almost like spiritual flashbacks. They connect the past and present, India and England, mother and daughter.

🧩 Narrative Depth

“Goldfish” avoids melodrama. It’s not a story of grand gestures but of tiny reckonings. A moment where Sadhana forgets Anamika’s name cuts deeper than a shouted argument. A scene where Anamika brushes her mother’s hair speaks volumes of unsaid love and regret.

It’s a film about what we inherit emotionally. Trauma, strength, stubbornness. And about how, in losing someone to memory loss, we often rediscover parts of them we never knew.

🌟 Critical Response

Critics have praised the film for:

• Its nuanced portrayal of dementia without exploiting it for sentimentality
• Kalki Koechlin’s restrained yet raw performance
• Deepti Naval’s portrayal of Sadhana, which balances pride, pain, and poignancy
• The cultural specificity and universal resonance of its themes

📝 Final Thought

Goldfish is not just a film about a woman losing her memories. It’s about a daughter retrieving her own. It’s a powerful, poetic reflection on what it means to remember, to forgive, and to let go. If you’re drawn to emotionally intelligent storytelling and generational drama, this film will stay with you like a half-remembered tune from childhood—soft, sad, and oddly comforting.