Shuchi Talati, a writer-director makes her first attempt at feature film making with her “Girls Will Be Girls” is an awesomely sad documentation of generational girlhood. Mira (Preeti Panigrahi) is the brightest star in her school (in the center’s studies) As per our records first woman ever holds the position of head prefect in the boarding school and is seen strutting around the academy with her prefect badge on her lapel and a look of smug satisfaction and assurance on her face. She is the one who wears the appointed outfit, supervises the pledge every morning and recites the words, becomes the mouthpiece of the principal for hours and hours and so forth without breaking a sweat, high chin, slight smile. She is no ordinary girl for the premiership is all school over achiever now and this is a gift that quickly turns into a curse or obligation to their divisions.
Being in the position of a head girl one is required (and not least everyone expects the same from her) to be the one who upholds the high academic performance of the institution as well as the ethos of behavior so to speak. A new international student Sri (Kesav Binoy Kiron) is a meeting that takes Mira in gusts of a new sensation a tormented sentiment of first love strong social boundaries and a rather tragic mother daughter relationship. And while Mira and Sri are drawn together by the force that only Best Picture nominees around a campaign may expect in terms of the bolt of love energy they are forced to play it secretly. Socializing is not encouraged at the institution but there are jokes in there too and inappropriately so.
The school principal Ms. Bansal (Devika Şahani) is a head of the women who does not stick out of the stereotype of compliance culture.
Girls get the warning, “Be careful of boys, Don’t speak more than is necessary.” It is about the height of the skirts girls wear and the hiding of the staircase camera pictures by the boys. There is this continuous endorsement of the ‘boys will be boys’ notion which the film rather obviously, as the title indicates, seeks to uphold.
As the girls arrive at home, Sri is simply introduced as a classmate, as Mira’s mother, Anila (Kani Kusruti), restricts her from dating. She adds: but, if the academics start to go haywire, then she will come to blame me. But underneath there secondarily lies a hint of her loathing. Anila is some sort of helicopter mother then evolves into one that is more and more reaching and finally, intrusive. Mira already had the resentment and angsty hatred towards her mother, and it only got worse once Anila started to witness this unstable phase of Mira’s development rather than refrain from crumbling structures with a lot of people in their emotional phases.
“Girls Will Be Girls” is filmed in 4:3 aspect ratio which, as the title suggests, creates a homely feeling. Talati’s direction limits the perspective to that of Mira and brings the audience through her eyes at all times. It equally captures intense moments of banal details such as fingers crossed, fingers waved and eyes flurried. It feels so romantic and intimate, leeching out of these delicate gestures the overwhelming emotions that these gestures spark. Panigrahi, who bagged the Sundance Dramatic Special Jury for this role, is simply volcanic. Scans’ Mira is sensitive, but always fierce and self-respecting even when she is being attacked. The exchange between Panigrahi and Kiron’s characters is stunning, their respective adoration, naive at first, developing into something more painful, real and confused with the narcissism of youth.
This is a growing up story coming from the perspective of Mira’s sexual awakening, but also it is a witness to the unsutured scars of childhood girlhood trapped inside the bodies of women.
In my opinion, “Girls Will Be Girls” is Anila’s film, as much as it is Mira’s film. However, the footage that we see and experience regarding Anila will often be derived from what she gives back to Mira. There is warmth of feeling from the mother there is also a muddy mixture of jealousy and protectiveness watching someone who seems to have such a strong sense of self, one that she has never felt at that age. Instantly, at the start of a dinner scene where such matters as marriage are being discussed, the movie evokes images of her marrying Mira’s father out of her desire to have sex without shame and that she now regrets being in a marriage that should have expired long ago.
At times, some of Anila’s choices are so hostile that they barely skirt the limit of what one might deem believable. However, between Kusruti’s fierce, compassionate performance and Talati’s sensitive writing “Girls Will Be Girls” manages to get away with it. The screenplay is punctuated with sweet yet deep-seated emotions with which even Mira is bound to dream of as she is meeting her very first love. This is a gradual story that simmers, but the pacing is perfect. There is certainly enough room to exhale here since the moments that were never uttered are what made the film as riveting as it is.
There is something about “Girls Will Be Girls” that is so captivating particularly when it comes to the theme of female growing up.
It only raises the question related to its provocative title: what does it mean for girls to be girls? It means stemming the natural tendencies of development and even punishing but finding strength and independence in spite of it. It means clashing with one’s mother and coming to the realization that one’s mother is not a grown-up woman known to her all of her life, but a little girl who had to grow up as well. And yet Talati’s film is not sentimental or politically correct while addressing its issues. On the contrary, it is ineluctably about real life in current.
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