Girls Will Be Girls

Coming-of-age films could probably more accurately be termed coming-of-emotions movies - and in the case of Shuchi Talati’s debut, everything from lust and jealousy to anger and sadness is present, often at the same time.

Mira (Preeti Panigrahi) is a good kid. The first girl to be given the honour of being head prefect at her school in the Indian Himalayas, she follows the litany of rules and helps to enforce them. She’s also happy with her status as a borderline nerd, which her mate Priya (Kajol Chugh) certainly finds helpful when she has trouble with her homework. When Mira’s eye catches that of Sri (Kesav Binoy Kiron), a new kid in class who has just relocated from Hong Kong, the connection leaps from the screen.

Talati captures the way that emotions can run hot in seconds from a standing start when you’re a teenager. The very act of helping Sri put away a telescope following an afterschool club becomes filled with potential thanks to the way Talati observes how the proximity of the job brings a welcome frisson to both of them. This is an observant film, in general, where body language speaks volumes, whether it is a dance move shared or rebuffed as an act of bonding or a little finger stretched out as a gesture of regret.

On a more day-to-day level Mira is also at the point where she’s trying to strike out in independence from her mother Anila (Kani Kusruti), who notably avoids the more traditional sari dress of the teachers when she pays a visit to the school. “Are you still scared of your mom?” Sri asks her in an early exchange. “No,” she replies. “Now I just can’t stand her.”

In a mark of the complexity of Talati’s film, after Anila discovers her daughter is secretly chatting on the phone with Sri at night she doesn’t become dictatorial about the subject, instead pretending to be Sri’s aunt on the phone to bend the school rules and help her daughter to arrange a clandestine study date around at their house. On arrival, it turns out that Sri’s charms work almost as well on Anila as they do on Mira. Sri is a welcome diversion given that Mira spends most of her time pushing her mother away, while her husband is away a lot for work. The push and pull of the triangle of emotions this creates drives much of the rest of the film. There’s danger and innocence at play but Talati avoids anything exploitative. Away from the central story, Talati offers a broader view of an environment where misogyny is still commonplace and where the onus is on the girls to protect themselves from the boys trying to up-skirt them rather than punish the perpetrators.

Talati is also generous to all her characters. Although Anila loves the attention Sri gives her, her motivations also stem from a protective impulse towards her daughter. And if Sri is rather too slick for his own good, he turns on the charm with the best of intentions and his vulnerabilities are also evident, particularly in terms of his absentee parents.

Mira’s emotions, meanwhile, are allowed to take centrestage. Panigrahi is pitch perfect in her debut role. She imbues Mira with an open naivety but also a determination and a readiness to embrace adulthood, epitomised by her approach to plans for she and Sri to have sex. The young actress takes Mira from hesitant to confident in a heartbeat and is matched step-for-step by Kusruti. Their chemistry together is particularly strong in shared scenes where they mirror or repel one another simply through their reactions - whether it’s dancing or brushing their teeth. No matter the friction between them, however, Talati makes clear that when it comes to facing challenges, mums always have your back..