Girls Will Be Girls, released in UK cinemas in September 2024, is Shuchi Talati’s first feature and has already been a success, having been selected for the 2024 Sundace Film Festival.
It follows the story of 16 year old Mira (Preeti Panigrahi) who experiences her coming of age while attending a conservative boarding school deep in the Himalayas. She had just been appointed the head prefect at her school, a role that is taken very seriously where she studies and is also the first female student to achieve this. However, her academic focus becomes disrupted when she begins interacting with a male peer, Kiron (Kesav Binoy), with whom she develops a strong romantic and sexual attraction to.
The problem is that her blossoming relationship with Kiron can’t flourish in the way she wants it to as she is under the watchful eyes of the teachers at her school as well as her own mother. It becomes obvious throughout the course of the movie that her mother never had the chance to ‘come of age’ and that she experiences pent up sexual repression. While it’s easy to see Mira’s mother as the bad cop, it rather adds to the intersectionality of female rage and we can actually feel sorry for her. An adult woman with such a negative experience as she came of age, she feels forced to repress it within her own daughter too.
An adult woman with such a negative experience as she came of age, she feels forced to repress it within her own daughter too.
As viewers, our eyes are opened to the struggles of being a young woman in a strict society where the focus remains on academia and ignoring the romantic advances of boys.
In the backdrop to all of this, the film also deals with the ideas of gender inequality and the unbalanced expectations placed on male and female students. At one point, Mira is chased back to the girls’ dorms by a group of boys who are angry at her for turning down a proposal from one of them. Also, she is frequently told (even if covertly) by her caregivers that the sexist, predatory behaviour from her male peers is actually her fault. Rather than rehabilitating the damaging behaviours of the boys, her parents and teachers would rather make it Mira’s responsibility to fix.
Also, she is frequently told (even if covertly) by her caregivers that the sexist, predatory behaviour from her male peers is actually her fault.
One thing I liked about the film was it’s relatable and accurate reflection of female sexuality. It didn’t feel crass or overly-romanticised and it gently dealt with the themes of masturbation and virginity in a way that depicts the teenage experience in an appropriate way. Mira’s exploration of her body as well as the exploration of her sexual thoughts felt awkward in the right ways.
Also, her obvious deterioration from being an innocent, hardworking student to being a teenager with sexual sentience is more than overt on the screen and as much as this is heartbreaking, it’s raw and true to life.
This is what I appreciated the most about this film. That you can feel the frustration emanating from the screen and you know that Mira’s story is not individual. That you know millions of young women around the world feel the entrapment that Mira feels.
The ending is cathartic and realistic and it makes you reflect on your own freedoms as well as social expectations that have been placed on you from a young age. A thought-provoking watch for anyone.
