Margarita With A Straw (Hindi, 2015)

Films with a handicapped/disabled protagonist generally take the easy way out by making the audience ‘feel’ for their predicament. However, Shonali Bose makes sure she doesn’t fall into this trap by carefully side-stepping this behavior as much as possible & focusing boldly on the protagonist’s sexual awakening & how it affects her mother. Hats off to her conviction for pulling off a theme as rare as this in the realm of Indian Mainstream Cinema.

Kalki has played a variety of roles in her short Bollywood career, but this certainly is a landmark film for her. Not just for her physical struggle in portraying such a startling character, but the way of speaking & voice modulation brings to the fore the actor within. One scene where she performs with wonderful restraint would be when she deals with the rejection from Nima, her first love. She had ample opportunity to be melodramatic but her choice of underplay at that juncture will win you over.

Revathy who acts in very few films has chosen a fabulous role once again. The film has a beautiful mother-daughter relationship subplot where Revathy scores bigtime. She breaks stereotype when she drives the family mini-van instead of the husband & shows her motherly love when combing Laila’s hair after the maid had just finished combing. Her equation with her family & even with Khanum has been scripted with dexterity.

The biggest thing about the characterization of Khanum is that after a point, you actually forget that she is blind. Sayani Gupta’s flawless portrayal too plays a part in that character making a mark. Laila’s dad & brother have very less screen time but even they have make a mark with some subtle exchanges like the one where they beg to go for a Cricket match to the Lady of the house!

The soundtrack by Mickey MCCleary plays a vital part in conveying the youthful exuberance of Laila. There is also a Classical touch neatly woven in to the script. Plenty of numbers are worthy of repeated hearing. The sound design & costumes too makes a mark.

Dialogues remain very classy & fit the bill. Couple of them which you remember are, ‘Close your eyes, you will see better’ and ‘It’s wonderful but so scary’. It is also nice to see another aspect of Laila’s character when she plays Street Chess in a Searching for Bobby Fisher -esque setting. It’s a pity that this knot if not followed more in the film.

The theme of the film being sexual awakening of a teenage cerebral palsy kid, boldness with respect to Love-making scenes is essential and they have been filmed aesthetically too. However, the beautiful Mother-Daughter equation & very relatable relationship problems are worthy of a wider audience which the ‘A’ certificate wards off. Also, the perspective of the person opposite to Laila whose inhibitions with respect to straining her physically is not brought out well enough.