Ever read reports of children who are suddenly orphaned and sent to live with relatives? What happens to them? That’s the story Mithya tells.

Sumanth Bhat’s unusual, sensitive and haunting feature debut from 2023 is now available on Prime Video. Eleven-year-old Mithun’s father is dead. His mother has committed suicide. Mithun (Athish Shetty), known as Mithya, was the one who found his mother’s body.

Mithya and his younger sister Vandhana are brought to Udupi by his maternal aunt Jyothi to live with her family. Jyothi (Roopa Varkady) and her husband Surya (Prakash Thuminad) do their best to take care of Mithya, but it’s hard since they have a daughter of their own and Mithya barely speaks Kannada since he was brought up in Mumbai.

In fact, the pre-teen barely speaks at all. Scarred by what he has seen and remembers, Mithya has built a wall of silence around him. He makes a new friend and enjoys his bike rides, but he won’t say what actually happened to his parents, even after his deceased father’s relatives come to take him away.

The Kannada film chimes with this year’s in its exploration of the effects of domestic strife on the psychology of a young boy. There are also times when...