Girls Will Be Girls — Sundance Review — Sucharita Tyagi
By now you might have heard this Indian film won two major awards at Sundance this year. Audience Award for World Cinema in the Dramatic Competition and Special Jury Award for Acting.
What is this film Richa Chadha has produced? Come find out.
I am going to keep this review short and kaafi concise because Indian release of the film is still quite far away I imagine and I’d like to remind you of the film then again. But here are some early thoughts after my first and only viewing as a member of the press at Sundance this year.
More often than not, when one watches a movie or show about teenagers in school, most of the narrative focus is on showing how incredible the time in one’s life is. Looking at a future full of hope, learning new things, expanding horizons. I find myself reflected in none of these.
The reality for so many of us is the exact opposite. Most of my school years were horrifying, I have little to no fond memories of what STILL remains the worst few years of my life, and at age 35 it’s safe to say I’ve had some life experiences.
Shuchi Talati’s Girls Will Be Girls is interesting in telling that story. In those first few years when social constructs and hierarchies become a real thing when a teenage girl first begins to realize that everything the world promises to offer, comes with strings attached.
Preeti Panigrahi is 16-year-old Mira, the head prefect of her boarding school in the hills. As a student with more authority than others, Mirs is held to a higher standard by her school faculty. Back home is mother Anila, played by Kani Kusruti, a graduate of the same school who comes into town to live near Mira and takes her away from boarding to focus better during exam days. It’s here that she meets Mira’s crush, the new kid Srinivas played by Kesav Binoy Kiron, who runs his student astronomy club, has lived abroad, and like Mira is also wise beyond his years. As Mira and Sri grow close, Anila’s involvement in the relationship becomes ever so slightly murky.
Shuchi Talati, who has also written the movie, has spoken about bringing her own life into her writing. It’s a joy to have her as someone allowing you to look back at the time when young girls at co-ed schools were given positions of power, but no one else was specifically taught how to respect their authority. Held to a higher standard, Mira’s principal expects her to tell her best friend to stop hanging out with a boy but also has to be goaded by Mira to take action against boys taking inappropriate pictures of female students. Devika Shahani, who plays the school principal, Bansal, can barely make eye contact when Mira tells her about these miscreants but gladly holds a school meeting showing girls what length their skirts should be. These dual standards are visible to us adult viewers, the film doesn’t make this character a villain, or the opportunity to declare its activism. Principal Bansal isn’t an evil cartoon, but she is a teacher we have ALL known at some point in our lives, an amalgam of our very early influences, passing on generational trauma, to be honest.
The film asks to break the cycle of trauma. Mira’s mother Anila wants to be her best friend, through the film you see her toe the line between disciplinarian and co-conspirator against the patriarchy. A product of the same system, Anila is dependent on her husband for money but doesn’t see the problem with the way things are clearly enough to become a shield for her daughter, as most mothers we have known. The way their relationship evolves makes you want to root for them both.
The closest we come to meeting a “bad guy” in Girls Will Be Girls is when a group of boys chase Mira back into her hostel on teacher’s day. All the students are cosplaying adults and instantly a young pent-up masculine rage comes to the front on the very first day they’ve been given the opportunity to behave like grown men without consequences. As your heart breaks for this 16-year-old who has done no wrong, you see her internalize every problem in the structures around her, as somehow being her fault. Should she not have been attractive to Sri? Are teenage sexual urges sinful? Should women not be allowed to be in charge?
Kani Kusruti is just as magic as Anila, a woman jostling to feel wanted and appreciated while going through the motions of responsibilities she must fulfill. In Shuchi Talati’s observation, Anila succeeds in protecting her daughter by allowing her to see firsthand a balanced level of narcissism a woman must possess in order to claim the spaces she wants to occupy.
The tenderness of Shuchi’s gaze toward Mira and Anila is brought to the frame thanks to the film’s Taiwanese cinematographer Jih-E-Peng. When Mira looks at her naked body in a mirror, practices kissing, or talks on the phone at night, these moments don’t feel blasphemous, shocking, or manipulative because of the matter-of-factness with which they’re shot. It’s a beautiful and skilled coming together of craft and impression.
Girls Will Be Girls should hopefully get an Indian release this year, and after its two wins at Sundance, plus the rave reviews it’s already garnered, make sure to have it on your watchlist.
