GIRLS WILL BE GIRLS tells an important tale with utmost sensitivity Movie Review: GIRLS WILL BE GIRLS tells an important tale

Star Cast: Preeti Panigrahi, Kani Kusruti, Kesav Binoy Kiron

Director: Shuchi Talati

Girls Will Be Girls Movie Review Synopsis: GIRLS WILL BE GIRLS is the story of a school girl in love. In the late 1990s, Mira Kishore (Preeti Panigrahi) studies in Class 12 in a school on the foothills of the Himalayas. She is the first girl of the school to be elected as the head prefect and she takes up the responsibility seriously. She befriends Srinivas (Kesav Binoy Kiron), who has relocated from Hong Kong. Both get attracted to each other. Mira stays with her mother Anila (Kani Kusruti) and the latter catches the former talking to Srinivas. She asks Mira to bring Srinivas home. Anila and Srinivas strike up a friendship, which makes Mira jealous. On the other hand, Mira gets into the bad books of certain male students, when she complains about their misbehaviour to the principal, Bansal ma'am (Devika Shahani). What happens next forms the rest of the film.

Girls Will Be Girls Movie Story Review: Shuchi Talati's story is simple and very relatable. Shuchi Talati's screenplay is unhurried and straight out of life. At the same time, it is peppered with dramatic and even tense moments. Shuchi Talati's dialogues are conversational.

Shuchi Talati's direction does justice to the plot in hand. Though she doesn’t mention which era the film is set in, one soon understands that it is based before the millennium, at a time before cell phones became common and when one had to go to cyber cafes to access the internet. This aspect is fascinating. But the film is not light-hearted fare. Many scenes make viewers uncomfortable and angry. The sequence where Bansal ma’am puts the blame on female students when she learns about male students clicking their inappropriate pictures is a case in point. Moreover, the mother-daughter track is powerful and Shuchi nicely uses silences to depict the state of the characters. A few scenes that stand out are Mira and Srinivas at the rooftop, Mira and Anila dancing, Mira and Srinivas forced to study in different rooms and Srinivas’s birthday. The finale is nail-biting.

On the flipside, Shuchi should have simplified certain aspects like the equation between Anila and her hubby. Also, how was Srinivas managing all alone and what was his bond with his parents like? The absence of these aspects affects the impact. Lastly, it’s a niche film and is meant for a minuscule audience.

Girls Will Be Girls Movie Review Performances: Preeti Panigrahi makes a confident debut. Her dialogue delivery is great but watch how amazingly she communicates through her eyes. Kani Kusruti, who was recently seen in another globally acclaimed film ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT, delivers yet another spectacular performance. Kesav Binoy Kiron is dashing and performance-wise, he’s first-rate. Devika Shahani plays her part aptly. Kajol Chugh (Priya; Mira’s friend) and Akash Pramanik (Harik; who proposes to Mira) lend able support. Jitin Gulati (Harish) is wasted.

Girls Will Be Girls movie music and other technical aspects: There’s only one original song in, by Sneha Khanwalkar, 'Nazar', which works well in the film. However, it won’t have a shelf life. Pierre Oberkampf's background score is minimal but impactful.

Jih-E Peng's cinematography adds to the realism and is creative. Avyakta Kapur's production design is authentic. Shaahid Amir's costumes are well-researched and go well with the era shown. Amrita David's editing is neat but is too slow in some scenes.

Girls Will Be Girls Movie Review Conclusion: On the whole, GIRLS WILL BE GIRLS tells an important tale with utmost sensitivity and has the potential to resonate big time with its target audience.

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