Ramakant (Suraj Sharma) has grown up reading the letters his successful brother Udai (Prateik Babbar) sends home to their sleepy village of Jitvapur from the United States or Umrika. Discovering these letters to be a lie concocted by his father, Ramakant sets off on the unimaginable journey from his village to America by way of Bombay, in the hope of finding out the truth. Accompanied by his childhood friend, Lalu (Tony Revolori), Ramakant goes through the crests and troughs of city life. Set in the 1980s, Prashant Nair’s Umrika is an endearing tale that is beautifully brought to life by the cast, led by the impressive Sharma. The production design is particularly admirable for its authentic recreation of 1980s.

The gentle pace works well in the first hour, but Nair runs out of steam in depicting Ramakant’s struggle to deal with the truth about Udai. Ramakant’s bold romantic relationship with a woman beggars belief, as does the idea that under-educated villagers in the ‘70s and ’80s would dream of fleeing towards America. The real destination of an under-educated Indian immigrant might have been the Arab countries, but then “Dubai” cannot be mangled like “Umrika”.