Umrika is definitely Prashant Nair's film, and it's a beauty. Definitely check this one out.

Full Review | Mar 11, 2021

A film of genuine surprises and tiny delights, even though it bogs down and loses its urgency when the quest that drives it falls into the background.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 27, 2020

"Umrika" gets too distracted by unnecessary sidelines when it could be focusing on its intensely likable characters and investing in its own intriguing concepts.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Feb 5, 2019

There are moments of comedy, of eternal sadness, hope, and emptiness. The varying ranges are impressive.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 14, 2018

Prashant Nair, the director, has crafted a sweet, funny and very touching narrative that is universal.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 31, 2017

Umrika makes pertinent observations about the challenges faced by desperate migrants, but the characters are too subdued and generalised to enforce the story's empathy with its subject matter.

Full Review | Sep 23, 2016

Although it's set in the 1970s and '80s, it couldn't be more timely.

Full Review | Sep 22, 2016

Obstacles to happiness, it suggests, may lie in diehard tradition, as much as in economic inequality. It's a sobering watch and an interesting, if not outstanding, film.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 3, 2016

A bitter sweet drama that marries themes of aspirational 'migration' with coming of age and cultural traditions that are broken

Full Review | Sep 12, 2015

The greater themes resonate because Nair has managed to incorporate several big and abstract topics into a story in which they become highly personal for the characters.

Full Review | Sep 10, 2015

Umrika achieves remarkable power as a story by concentrating its view of America through the eyes of people who have never been there.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 10, 2015

The strength in Nair's bittersweet script comes not from large monologues, but rather the subtle, almost throwaway lines that build up to a surprising yet fitting end that even allows its characters to look out over a sunset without it feeling trite.

Full Review | Sep 10, 2015

'Life of Pi's' Suraj Sharma makes his Bollywood debut in this ingratiating drama set in the '70s and '80s.

Full Review | Jan 28, 2015

"Umrika" is ultimately a non sequitur story that, at worst, holds no weight and, at best, makes little sense to someone born outside of Indian values and traditions.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Jan 27, 2015