Girls Will Be Girls movie storyline. In a strict boarding school nestled in the Himalayas, 16-year-old Mira is focused on her classwork and dreams of perfect scores. When she meets Sri through the astrology club her priorities change and they quickly begin spending all their time together. When Mira’s mom, Anila becomes suspicious of her daughter sneaking around, she stages a blunt intervention and the teenagers are now only allowed to meet under her watching eye. But her intervention soon creates a bigger problem in the shape of an unexpected emotional love triangle.
Girls Will Be Girls (stylized in all-lowercase; Hindi: गर्ल्स विल बी गर्ल्स) is a 2024 Indo-French coming-of-age drama film written and directed by Shuchi Talati. It stars Preeti Panigrahi, Kani Kusruti, and Kesav Binoy Kiron. The film is director Talati’s first feature, and the debut of Panigrahi and Kiron. The film is set in a boarding school in the Himalayan foothills, and centers around the teenage protagonist Mira’s romance with a charming new student, her subsequent sexual-awakening, and at times strained relationship to her protective mother.
Talati conceived the story of the film in 2018, drawing from her own experiences as a young girl, her school in Vadodara, and Enid Blyton’s book series Malory Towers and St. Clare’s. At the direction of Talati, the film was produced by a majority female crew in order to create a safe space where “girls could be girls.”
The female crew include producers Claire Chassange and Richa Chadha, Taiwanese cinematographer Jih-E Peng, production designer Avyakta Kapur, and editor Amrita David. The film was produced by Pushing Buttons Studios, and received a production grant from the French Aide aux Cinemas du Monde in 2021. It was shot over 45 days in the northern Indian region of Uttarakhand, and in the capital Dehradun.
The film was selected for the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, participating in the competition section of the festival. It was also entered for the 47th iteration of the Gothenburg Film Festival.
Bief Reviiew for Girls Will Be Girls
Filmmaker Shuchi Talati creates a beautiful, tender and complex story on exploring female sexuality, culture, and mother & daughter relationship with strong performances, great camerawork, and ambitious writing. Talati’s writing and direction felt genuine, sweet and nature on capturing the characters interactions and personalities that were well-developed and interesting and approaching the themes and cultures of India with sweet tenderness and complexity.
The camerawork shooting in 4:3 aspect ratio felt purposeful and helped create the atmosphere of the setting. Many of the performances are really good and the characters are interesting as I felt genuine connection and investment to the characters. You are able to get engagement, connection and understanding of many of the characters and the mother and daughter aspects were strong. Good costumes and production designs throughout as well
Girls Will Be Girls (2024)
Directed by: Shuchi Talati
Starring: Preeti Panigrahi, Kesav Binoy Kiron, Kani Kusruti, Kajol Chugh, Nandini Verma, Devika Shahani, Akash Pramanik, Aman Desai, Sumit Sharma, Jitin Gulati, Pradeep Kapoor, Ahana Malla
Screenplay by: Shuchi Talati
Production Design by: Avyakta Kapur
Cinematography by: Jih-E Peng
Film Editing by: Amrita David
Costume Design by: Shaahid Amir
Set Decoration by: Ananya Bhide
Art Direction by: Arzoo Ali
Music by: Pierre Oberkampf, Sneha Khanwalkar
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Luxbox
Release Date: January 20, 2024 (Sundance Film Festival), September 13, 2024 (United States)
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