Sundance 2024 Review: Girls Will Be Girls – “a promising first feature”

At the beginning of 12th standard, (grade 12) Mira (Preeti Panigrahi) is standing proudly in front of her classmates.  She has just been named Head Prefect, the first time a girl has ever held the title at the boarding school she attends.  She’s been bestowed this honour due to her impeccable academic record.  Mira takes her position seriously, a rule follower as well as a star student, and she makes sure her fellow students abide by the school’s strict policies.

But when a new boy enrols at the school, Mira finds her attention shift.  Sri (Kesav Binoy Kiron) is tall, and handsome, charismatic and traveled.  The two bond at an astronomy club meeting, where Mira purposefully arranges to stay behind, as you do when you have a crush, and soon the pair are finding new ways to spend time together.  Mira’s mother, Anila (Kani Kusruti) is suspicious of Mira’s new ‘friend,’ but having been a student at this same school herself she understands the strict restrictions and expectations on Mira.  Anila tries to lay some ground rules and allows the pair to be together under her supervision, but as she herself spends more time with Sri, lines become blurred and Mira’s awakening also becomes her own.

Check out all of our Sundance coverageComing of age stories aren’t exactly a new genre.  We’ve seen plenty of these on film.  However, first time feature director, Shuchi Talati offers a different take, one where both mother and daughter go through their own coming of age journeys.  Girls Will Be Girls is captivating, especially through its first half where we follow Mira as she learns about her own wants and desires.  She practices kissing on her wrist in the shower, she heads to the local Internet cafe and studiously takes notes on a sex-ed website, she discovers her own body.  Of course, her strict school hasn’t given her any preparation, really only, teaching her to be careful with boys and not to talk to them more than necessary.  Her sex-ed comes from research, some of which happens with a patient and more experienced Sri.

Talati keeps the camera close to Mira and Sri, which only enhances their developing tension.  She realistically captures the excitement and all-consuming thrill of first love and it’s this part of the film that is particularly gripping.  Once the movie starts concentrating more on Anila, that feeling and momentum is almost overshadowed.

Anila was herself denied her own coming-of-age experience, with stricter parents in an even more misogynistic school system (remember, Mira is the first female Head Prefect).  Sri starts putting on all the charms to spend more time with Mira.  Or is he? This is where we start to get some May December vibes encroaching into the story, and the interactions between Anila and Sri become more and more uncomfortable.  Is he manipulating the situation to truly spend more time with Mira or to suit his own particular needs? While this certainly serves a purpose, it brings with it a different type of tension that throws off the narrative slightly.  It’s a very fine line that Talati walks bringing this complexity to the fold, which comes close to not working.

Yet, Talati manages to pull it off with her three leads’ impressive performances.  Kiron is perfectly charming as Sri, just as he needs to be in order to bring ambiguity to his motivations by film’s end.  The scenes between Panigrahi and Kusruti are particularly compelling, as they navigate a complicated mother-daughter relationship.  It’s often best portrayed in what is not said between them, their glances giving the audience everything they need to know.

Girls Will Be Girls is a promising first feature from Shuchi Talati.  While at first it seems to follow some familiar genre tropes (can’t Mira have good grades AND have a boyfriend?) it quickly elevates itself and delves deeper into these relationships.  Not only in the relationship Mira and Anila share, but also their relationship with societal expectations, sexuality, and the patriarchal hierarchy in which they are raised.  By increasing their sense of self and self-worth, both Mira and Anila prove that girls will be girls, but they also will become strong women.

Girls Will Be Girls premiered at the Sundance Film Festival January 20, 2024.  It’s final in person screening is sold out, though Online viewing for US audiences is available beginning January 25th.  For more information, head to festival.sundance.org

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