SHREWSBURY FILM SOCIETY
| Director | Shuchi Talati |
|---|---|
| Country | India |
| Year | 2024 |
Girls Will Be Girls is a striking debut feature from Shuchi Talati, set in a strict mixed-gender boarding school in the Himalayan foothills during the 1990s. It is a coming-of-age drama that approaches adolescent desire, power, and vulnerability with a sensitivity that feels both culturally specific and universally resonant. The film premiered at Sundance, where it won an audience award, and it quickly established Talati as a filmmaker with a distinctive command of tone and character.
At the centre is Mira, played by Preeti Panigrahi, a high-achieving sixteen-year-old who has just been appointed Head Prefect, the first girl to hold the position at her conservative school. Mira is academically gifted, ambitious, and determined to excel at everything she attempts. Her life is governed by rules, discipline, and the expectations of the institution that surrounds her. Yet when she meets Sri, a new student recently transferred from an international school in Hong Kong, her focus begins to shift. Their relationship begins with small, tentative gestures, including a night of stargazing, and soon becomes a covert romance that challenges the school’s rigid codes of behaviour.
Talati’s direction lingers on the emotional rhythms of Mira’s world. The film unfolds at a deliberate pace, attentive to charged glances, awkward silences, and the tentative steps of first love. Mira studies Sri with the same intensity she applies to her schoolwork, and her desire to be the best extends into her romantic awakening. The film’s atmosphere is shaped by this mixture of curiosity and self-consciousness, and the young cast delivers performances that capture the volatility of adolescence.
Complicating Mira’s journey is her mother, Anila, played by Kani Kusruti. Charismatic, unpredictable, and sharply aware of her daughter’s behaviour, Anila becomes a disruptive presence in Mira’s budding romance. When she insists that Sri may only visit Mira at their home, the arrangement creates an unexpected emotional triangle. Sri’s attention begins to drift, and the dynamic between mother and daughter becomes increasingly fraught. The film explores this tension with a clarity that exposes the gendered power structures shaping both women’s lives. The rivalry that emerges is not simply about a boy but about identity, autonomy, and the unspoken resentments that accumulate within families.
One of the film’s most memorable sequences takes place in Mira’s sitting room, where she attempts to impress Sri with awkward dancing to generic 1990s pop. When Anila enters, the mood shifts into a mesmerisingly uncomfortable contest of charm and confidence. The scene captures the film’s blend of deadpan realism and emotional precision, and it highlights the uneasy overlap between adolescence and adulthood. Talati’s interest lies not in sensationalism but in the subtle ways desire and insecurity shape behaviour.
The school environment adds another layer of complexity. Mira’s relationship with Sri is forbidden in a setting that insists students must uphold “age-old Indian culture”. The boys are allowed a degree of leeway that the girls are denied, and the film includes an upskirting subplot that exposes the hypocrisy of the institution. When Mira seeks help, she is told that “picking a fight can make it worse”, a warning that reflects the broader social pressures placed on young women. In its final act, the film shifts into a more unsettling register, evoking the legacy of the 2012 Delhi gang rape and placing Mira in genuine danger. This tonal shift underscores the stakes of the world Talati depicts, where adolescent missteps can have profound consequences.
Visually, the film is attentive to the textures of its setting, from the crisp mountain air to the enclosed spaces of classrooms and dormitories. Talati and cinematographer Jih-E Peng frequently frame Mira from low angles, emphasising her watchfulness and the way she absorbs the world around her. The result is a portrait of a young woman negotiating desire, ambition, and fear in an environment that both nurtures and constrains her.
Girls Will Be Girls belongs to a lineage of intimate, female-centred coming-of-age stories such as The Diary of a Teenage Girl and films exploring mother-daughter tensions like Imitation of Life. Yet Talati’s film stands apart through its cultural specificity and its willingness to confront the darker undercurrents of adolescence. It is a character-driven drama that examines how gendered expectations shape behaviour long before adulthood, and how the desire to be seen can collide with the fear of being judged.
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