Girls Will Be Girls Review: Being a Girl in a Man’s World

Schuchi Talati’s first feature film Girls Will Be Girls (2024), starring Kani Kustruti and Preeti Panigrahi, is a tenacious yet tender tale of a mother and daughter in this quiet but dazzling coming of age story. Set in the Himalayas, the film follows sixteen year-old Mira, the first female elected Prefect at her boarding school, as new boy Sri, awakens her sexuality and disturbs her academic routine. Mira’s emotionally strenuous and complicated relationship with her mother entangles her in an emotional throuple. Talati’s feature delves into the sticky codependent relationship between mother and daughter, fluctuating between overbearing love and hissing jealousy, as both women connect with their inner desires. Anila, Mira’s unconventional mother, is lonely and neglected as a stay at home wife. Married at a young age, Mira’s sexual awakening stirs in Anila feelings of lust and envy as she is reminded of her adolescence.

Sri, who Talati uses as a catalyst in the story between Mira and Anila’s relationship, instantly becomes the main talking point between the otherwise quiet and desolate pair. Cinematographer Jih-E Peng, beautifully captures on screen the ever shifting battle for power between mother and daughter. In a scene between Mira, Anila and Sri, Peng meticulously displays the triangulation of power in a sort of primal courtship dance, as both Mira and Anila fight to dominate the screen and sideline the other. Sri, while often in shot, is caught in between the two women, his back is towards the viewer or his face obscured. Despite the film’s flirtations with teenage love, this coming of age is not a love story, but a young girl’s quest for sexual autonomy and reconciliation as she begins to understand her mother as a woman first.

Talati’s storytelling is endearing yet confronting, as she explores themes of power, sexuality and gender with such nuance and consideration. Set between Mira’s home and private boarding school, Talati provides context that shapes Mira’s sexuality as a privileged young Indian woman. Despite being elected as school Prefect, Mira is not respected by her male peers, who jeer and harass her as she attempts to crackdown on their predatory untoward behaviour at school. However, when flagged up to Ms Bansal, the school headteacher who also becomes another mother figure, Mira is dismissed and instead Ms Bansal tells her to discipline her female friends for their potential fleeting flirtations with boys in the school corridors. Ms Bansal represents classic Indian traditions, always dressed in a sari (in contrast with Anila’s jeans and t-shirt) she upholds patriarchal values and guides Mira, as school prefect, through the conventions she feels young Indian women ought to follow in order to earn their place. Mira’s idolisation of Ms Bansal comes crashing down on teacher’s day, as Mira’s world as she knows it comes to a halt when a gaggle of boys threaten her after she reprimands their inappropriate behaviour and rejecting their advances as she quickly locks herself in the girls dorm. To Mira’s utter dismay, instead of dealing with the harassment Mira had been warning her about, Ms Bansal scolds Mira for her relationship with Sri, threatening to take away her Prefect status. In a pivotal scene, Anila comes to her daughter’s rescue, defending Mira and criticising Ms Bansal and the boys, she takes Mira home. This is the first moment in the film where we see Mira hug her mother.

Through their turbulent relationship, Talati is able to humanise both Mira and Anila as individuals who are stifled and frustrated with their conditions and the social expectations of a conservative patriarchal society. Shot mainly in close up and mid shots, cinematographer Peng is able to illustrate their quiet suffocation. The two women fight for any semblance of power, Anila becomes the overprotective mother with no boundaries, and Mira becomes the detached and rebellious teenager. Somewhere in between this power struggle, Mira comes to the realisation that her gripes are misdirected at her mother and instead evolves her worldview.

In her exploration of sexuality, Talati makes the distinction between male and female. While both are a power struggle, male sexuality is presented as dominance and manipulation. Sri, charming and dreamy at first as we view him from Mira’s point of view, is selfish and inconsiderate as he exploits both Mira and Anila for his own personal gain, what he refers to as “keys”, with little consideration for either woman. Male sexuality is also presented in the clique of boys who terrorise the school halls with their phone cameras, upskirting and heckling the girls to little consequence. Whereas female sexuality is explored through sensuality, tenacity, acts of service and self awareness. Some of the most intimate scenes involve mirrors where Mira watches herself rubbing in lotion and dancing, or looks at her vagina for the first time, enlightened as she connects with her changing body. She spends her time helping Sri study, staying up late on the phone talking about his life experiences, and making romantic birthday plans for him.

Girls Will Be Girls is a must watch. Its sensitive portrayal of femininity and female relationships is transformative to say the least.

Girls Will Be Girls is showing in UK cinemas from 20 September.