Girls Will Be Girls review: A bold coming-of-age tale that's poignant, layered and effective

Shuchi Talati's Girls Will Be Girls begins with an 18-year-old Mira (Preeti Panigrahi), a straight-A student, being announced the head prefect at her strict Himalayan boarding school, after which she goes about reprimanding students for painted nails and socks of inappropriate length. A model student, an upholder of school rules, the quintessential 'good girl', who's often reminded by teachers how they expect nothing short of a perfect 100 in board exams, Mira's world goes upside down following a stargazing session with the new-in-school Sri (Kesav Binoy Kiron), a transfer student, the son of a diplomat.

In the following scenes, Mira is seen practising the perfect kiss, doing homework on sex, exploring her body, and asking Sri to teach her how to touch him. A coming-of-age tale, the film explores female sexual awakening, a tricky issue for any era, with such subtlety and deftness that one doesn't see often.

As Mira is insatiably drawn towards Sri, she increasingly detests her lonely, controlling yet charismatic mother Anila (Kani Kusruti), who regularly turns up from Haridwar to steer her through her exams. Early on, Mira tells Sri how she "can't stand" her mom, a feeling that only multiplies as both 'girls' compete for the attention of the same boy.

In this Sundance audience prize-winning film, Talati explores these two ends of gender-based tensions, the one Mira experiences with Sri and the other with Anila, with such finesse that the two thread through one another, never overpowering each other.

This is as much a tale of Mira exploring her sexual desires while being the 'perfect' student, as of Anila, worn-out, neglected, and lonely such that she vies for Sri's attention as she tries to hold on to girlhood.

Two subtle scenes stand out here. When Anila meets Sri for the first time, her choice of clothing catches the eye as she opts for a bright pink-coloured top with puffed shoulders, likely to have been bought at a younger age. In another, as she rings up Sri for the first time, with Mira standing on her side, she covers the phone receiver with a towel to conceal her voice, reflecting girlhood lived years ago. This is where the term 'Girls Will Be Girls' peaks for me.

A lot in the film is seen and experienced: a strict school that encourages perfectionism, discourages intermingling between boys and girls, and stipulates longer skirts for girls in response to boys looking up their skirts, because, well, 'boys will be boys'! There's the first crush, a sudden attention to one's appearance, disgust at body hair, boys proposing to girls, the latter rejecting their moves and the awakened sexual desires.

However, how Talati showcases the wild ride that is teenage when you're pulled in several directions and new realities unfold, is something that one hardly sees at least in Hindi-language films.

The film's rhythm only enhances its charm, as it mimics how life flows when nothing happens for several days and everything happens in a moment.

The only loose end is Mira's absent father, as one never understands where he is gone, which seems to have resulted in Anila's loneliness. However, Kusruti gives a cracking performance here, as she convinces viewers, often with her eyes and body language, of the character's current state and motivations.

Kiron, as Sri, also gives a balanced performance as a charming young boy who manoeuvres through a tense mother-daughter relationship.

And Panigrahi, as Mira, is absolutely terrific and gives the performance of a lifetime as she embodies a prim-proper student in school, showcases vulnerability when with Sri, and acts out every time in front of Anila. This is a coming-of-age film that deserves much praise.