‘Girls Will Be Girls’ Movie Review: A Quietly Breathtaking Coming-of-Age Drama

Director: Shuchi Talati 
Writer: Shuchi Talati 
Cast: Preeti Panigrahi, Kesav Binoy Kiron, Kani Kusruti 
Language: English, Hindi 
Streaming on: Amazon Prime Video

Girls Will Be Girls is a quietly breathtaking film. It includes several remarkable debuts – starting with writer-director Shuchi Talati.  This is her first feature, and she weaves this coming-of-age story of 18-year-old Mira with tenderness, frankness and delicacy. Female teenage sexuality has rarely been captured with this sensitivity and nuance in an Indian film.  Second, Preeti Panigrahi who plays Mira. Panigrahi is the find of the year. Without a trace of strain or drama, she captures the myriad emotions coursing through Mira as she discovers passion, sexuality, unbridled rage, a twisted sort of jealousy, resentment, disappointment and eventually, comfort. And third, Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal who debut as producers with their company Pushing Buttons Studios. Girls Will Be Girls does this with skill and uncommon grace.

The story is set in a conservative boarding school in the Himalayan foothills.  Mira is a model student — she is the first girl to be selected as head prefect.  Her duties include leading students to take the school oath in which they swear to “honour age old Indian culture.”  Here, the rules mostly apply to girls  - socks must be rolled up, skirts must touch the knees and nail polish is forbidden.  Mira follows these rules and enforces them even as she aces all her tests.  But her discipline takes a hit when she meets the new boy Sri, played with exactly the right mix of charisma and callousness by Kesav Binoy Kiron.  And aggravating this combustible mix of awkwardness, heat, unbearable ache and urgency, is Mira’s mother Anila, played superbly by Kani Kusruti.

Anila is as fascinating as Mira. She studied at the same boarding school and has a house nearby.  She moves here whenever Mira has exams.  She had a love marriage but now, a distance seems to have crept in. There is something unfulfilled about her. She’s a woman looking not so much for companionship as for a simple conversation. Anila wants to be a supportive mother, and she allows Sri to come home.  His own parents are curiously absent – in one scene, he says, 'my parents do their thing, and I do mine'.  But mother and daughter become rivals for his attention.

This is tricky terrain; even a minor misstep could have derailed the rhythms of these relationships, but Talati weaves their fragile emotions with absolute precision.  Little is spoken. But we see the rifts in glances, charged silences and close-ups of hands. And note the small moments — in one scene, Anila brings out cups of tea to the table for herself and Sri.  But Mira must go to the kitchen to get hers. There are sequences in which the interactions get distinctly uncomfortable, but Talati doesn’t judge her characters. This is a film led by empathy and Talati keeps the tension simmering until eventually, it boils over.

Little in Girls Will Be Girls is predictable. The narrative goes to places that you did not see coming. Quite simply, it is one of the finest films of the year. Don’t miss it.