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Rating:
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Director:Shonali Bose
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Cast:Kalki Koechlin, Revathi, Sayani Gupta
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Banner:Viacom 18 Motion Pictures
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Producer:Shonali Bose, Nilesh Maniyar
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Music:Mickey McCleary
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Release Dt :Apr, 17 2015
Story
Laila (Kalki Koechlin) is a wheel-chair bound young woman. She is also frisky and free-spirited. How anyone can appear thus while dealing with a body that will not obey the commands of your brain, which is as agile, if not more, than anyone else’s, is something Koechlin manages beautifully. For the ‘abled’ to realistically portray a disabled person is incredibly tough: Kalki pulls it off, and makes us believe and invest in her Laila.
In her Delhi University college, Laila falls for a cool guy (Dalha) who grooves. And learns, like all of us do, about rejection. In the US, where she goes for a ‘creative writing course’, accompanied by her mother (Revathy, reliably solid), she makes the discovery that she may, gasp, swing both ways.
Her companions on this part of her journey, a visually impaired young woman (Sayani Gupta), and a cute guy in her class, are able to move past the tangled, wasted limbs to the girl, whose wants are clear to anyone with an eye, and half a brain. How this changed thereafter is the crux of the film?
Analysis
Laila – and the film – grows on us steadily as she emerges as a ‘full-bodied’ character making no bones about her need for sexual gratification.
So nuanced is the characterisation that the fact that Laila is a physically challenged woman eventually ceases to matter.
Rarely, if ever, has an Indian film portrayed disability with such matter-of-fact directness, without mining it for undue sympathy for an afflicted character’s plight. Margarita, With A Straw only seeks rounded understanding.
It manages to evoke a full appreciation of the adventurous spirit of a woman who breaks all preconceived notions about life in a wheelchair. Laila is as stoic as she is heroic.
Laila’s mother (Revathy) is the magnifying glass through which we view her.
She is Laila’s one-woman support system. She stands rock-solid behind her daughter despite the moments of tension and unease that inevitably erupt when the latter comes out.
Bose brings a remarkable lightness of touch to bear upon a plot that might at first glance appear to be primarily geared towards accomplishing an awareness-raising mission.
The film certainly gives the audience a peek into the inner world of a differently-abled woman whose urges are, if anything, more pronounced than everyone else’s.
When the mother discovers that Laila surfs porn sites, she confronts her. Laila reacts in anger and accuses her mom of invading her privacy.
But Margarita, With A Straw isn’t only about disability and homosexuality. Its focus is also on questions of identity and personal choice, and above all of humanity.
Laila is a charming and talented rebel on a wheelchair. She writes lyrics for a Delhi University college band and is the cynosure of all eyes.
Performance
Director Shonali Bose and lead actress Kalki Koechlin are on top of their respective games in Margarita, With a Straw, an offbeat drama that is both sensitive and provocative.
The wonderfully well-scripted film (screenplay: Bose and Nilesh Maniyar) focuses on the most intimate physical and emotional needs of a woman with cerebral palsy.
It delivers a poignant and uplifting portrait of an individual determined to live life to the lees despite all the odds she faces owing to her restricted motor skills.
Margarita, With A Straw narrates its emotionally arresting and startlingly revelatory story without resorting to the mawkish or the preachy.
It is the sophistication of the making that stands out: Margarita, With A Straw is adroitly crafted. It eschews tear-jerking theatrics. And it does not take recourse to any shrill remonstrations to get its point across.
The protagonist, Laila (Koechlin), is unlike any heroine that Indian cinema has ever showcased.
She is physically challenged, but that isn’t the only aspect of her personality that the director underlines. Laila has to contend with several other ‘minority’ identities.
She is a woman in a man’s world. She is a Sikh’s daughter. And her sexual orientation isn’t obviously deemed ‘normal’ by those that that do not know better.
But nothing at all can stop Laila from pursuing the urges of the flesh and soul in quest of self-fulfilment.
In the film’s early scenes, it isn’t easy to grasp the words that trickle out of her lips – and that is exactly how it would be for any of us if we were to meet a person with CP in real life.
But soon enough, once we have warmed up to Laila’s manner of enunciation, all barriers to comprehension vanish.
Final Word
Watch it once
