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Film Review: Girls Will Be Girls (2024) by Shuchi Talati

Girls Will Be Girls Kani Kusruti Preeti Panigrahi
Screenshot
"Miss Prefect has been lecturing me already"

After years of Indian cinema not finding a solution for the absence of local films in the major international festival circuit, 2024 signaled a significant change, through the ‘regular” path of the co-production, with “All We Imagine as Light” finding its place in Cannes and “Girls Will be Girls” in Sundance, while both films currently enjoying a rather extensive festival run. Written and directed by Shuchi Talati in her feature debut, the film was made by an almost exclusively female crew, while, just like Payal Kapadia’s film, features Kani Kusruti in one of the protagonist roles. 

Girls Will Be Girls is screening at San Diego Asian Film Festival

SDAFF loo 2024

The story is set in a boarding school in the Himalayan foothills, and revolves around Mira, a girl who is the embodiment of all things the school expects its students to achieve. She is the top of her class, the first female student to be appointed head prefect, she enforces the dress code, leads the school’s daily pledge and serves as the liaison between principal Ms Bansla and the students. This last aspect, however, also means that she has to report if she sees other students breaking the rules, which also includes girls having relationships with boys. Outside of school, Mira retains a complicated relationship with her mother, Anila, who acts like a girlfriend frequently, as the scenes when the two dance eloquently highlight, but also ‘rules’ her daughter with an iron hand. 

Things change when a new boy, Sri, arrives in her class, the son of a diplomat who has travelled the world, and immediately shows interest in her. Mira is not untouched by his advances, and the two soon start seeing each other. However, they have to face a number of obstacles, including Anila, who decides to keep Sri essentially as a part of the family, frequently inviting him to their house, and Mira’s status that has her always following the rules. 

Shuchi Talati directs a film that revolves around three interconnecting axes. The first one is the teenage romance between Mira and Sri, which unfolds in a way that can only be described as adorable, although the director retains the sense of realism that actually permeates the whole movie. Particularly Mira’s sexual awakening is quite well presented, without any elements of sensualization, with the fact that Sri is more experienced and Mira the one who ‘wants to know” working quite well here too. 

The second and probably the most intriguing is Mira’s relationship with Anila, who emerges as a rather enigmatic figure. Although seemingly cool, particularly with her interactions with Sri, which she treats as a friend, she is also adamant about the rules she enforces to her daughter, with the “I won’t allow anything more than friendship” she informs the couple being indicative of her attitude. At the same time, the fact that she has Sri rather frequently inside their house does remind of the ‘keep your enemies close’ tactic but at the same time moves in a rather perplexing territory, as at times her behavior towards him appears like flirting, in a tactic that seems to be antagonizing towards her daughter. That Sri realizes the fact (“she likes attention” he tells Mira at one point) adds yet another layer to this triangle, that makes these relationships and the whole movie actually, even more intriguing. 

The third revolves around Mira’s role in school and particularly the ways she enforces the rules makes her unlikeable to her classmates, and particularly a group of boys who ‘rule’ the school, and end up punished due to her, in a result though, they definitely deserved. The whole presentation of the school in the particular area is quite interesting, since the older students eventually take the role of teachers, while the top student, Mira in this case, take the role of the principal. The difficulties the protagonist faces as soon as she takes up the role proves one of the most dramatic moments in the movie, but is also indicative of the patriarchy that dominates the school and the country actually, with Talati being quite realistic and critical of it throughout the movie. 

Check also this interview

The way these three axes are combined in interchanging fashion is another of the movie’s biggest traits, with Talati showing a rather steady directorial hand in the matter. Amrita David’s editing also helps the most in that regard, as it results in a slow, but quite fitting pace, which does not lag at all throughout the 118 minutes of the movie. Jih-E Peng’s cinematography is on a very high level too, with the focus on the meaningful gazes, the small gestures and the realistic presentation of the sexual scenes working exceptionally well for the movie.

It definitely helps that the acting is among the highlights here. Preeti Panigrahi in her debut gives a performance that makes her appear like a true veteran, with her handling all the emotions, nuances, and psychological statues of her character excellently, in an anchoring performance that carries the movie from beginning to end. Also newcomer Kesav Binoy Kiron as Sri is quite good in the role of the pretty, smart boy, in a role that perfectly accompanies Panigrahi, with the chemistry of the two being of the highest caliber. Lastly, Kani Kusruti as Anile portrays a rather complicated character with gusto, frequently stealing the show with her performance, particularly in the scenes of tension. 

Despite the fact that the mother character remains ambiguous and somewhat inconclusive in her relationship with the two youths, “Girls Will Be Girls” emerges as an excellent film, particularly because it implements an approach that is equally realistic, contextually rich, and entertaining, in a truly impressive debut. 

About the author

Panos Kotzathanasis

Panagiotis (Panos) Kotzathanasis is a film critic and reviewer, specialized in Asian Cinema. He is the owner and administrator of Asian Movie Pulse, one of the biggest portals dealing with Asian cinema. He is a frequent writer in Hancinema, Taste of Cinema, and his texts can be found in a number of other publications including SIRP in Estonia, Film.sk in Slovakia, Asian Dialogue in the UK, Cinefil in Japan and Filmbuff in India.

Since 2019, he cooperates with Thessaloniki Cinematheque in Greece, curating various tributes to Asian cinema. He has participated, with video recordings and text, on a number of Asian movie releases, for Spectrum, Dekanalog and Error 4444. He has taken part as an expert on the Erasmus+ program, “Asian Cinema Education”, on the Asian Cinema Education International Journalism and Film Criticism Course.

Apart from a member of FIPRESCI and the Greek Cinema Critics Association, he is also a member of NETPAC, the Hellenic Film Academy and the Online Film Critics Association.

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