Preeti Panigrahi as teenager Mira in ‘Girls Will Be Girls’
Preeti Panigrahi, star of Girls Will Be Girls, missed the award ceremony that won her a special jury prize for acting at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. She was an hour behind on the clock, and asleep. The person who roused her from her nap was her mum, talking on the phone. “She was like, ‘Where are you? You got an award!’”
You can imagine a similar scene unfurling in Shuchi Talati’s shaded mother-daughter indie. Set in the Himalayan foothills, the film centres on Mira (Panigrahi), a bright, rule-following high schooler in the midst of her romantic and sexual awakening. The film is shaped by Mira’s tricksy relationship with her mother, played by Kani Kusruti, and set in motion by the entrance of a lanky, charming international exchange student (Kesav Binoy Kiron) into their lives.
Shot in real schools in Mussoorie, the film captures the rhythms of Indian boarding school life, while critiquing (without much fuss) its codes of tradition and excellence. Richa Chadha, a friend of Talati’s, picked out the script with husband Ali Fazal as their maiden production venture. The couple, who recently turned parents, have named their producing outfit Pushing Buttons Studios.
“In our individual careers as actors, we have worked with production houses who make you sign contracts and you end up feeling stuck,” Ali says. “Our driving philosophy at Pushing Buttons is not to hold back artists.” “Freedom is a prerequisite to art,” Richa chips in.
Bollywood actors and couple Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal during the promotion of their debut film production ‘Girls Will Be Girls’, in Mumbai, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024
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Their upcoming slate includes a feature documentary on their own inter-faith wedding (RiAlity) and other titles. There is an experimental slant — a fantasy drama by cult hero Kamal Swaroop is in the oven — as well as more middle-of-the-road offerings.
“I owe my career to left-of-centre films like Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! and Masaan,” Richa remarks. “In fact, Masaan, in its initial moments, when Shaalu and Deepak are courting each other, is a sweet, entertaining love story.”
Girls Will be Girls was shot with a mostly female crew; Taiwanese cinematographer Jih-E Peng wielded the camera. Talati created an open, safe space for her young actors to perform, Preeti attests (an official intimacy coordinator wasn’t available owing to budgetary constraints).
“We had consent in everything,” affirms Preeti, who is 22 and studying animation at the Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute (SRFTI). “Scenes of intimacy were properly choreographed and rehearsed. On set, people who were not required to be in our eyeline, they were asked to leave.”
Ali, known for Mirzapur, Khufiya and Kandahar, attended La Martiniere College in Lucknow and later The Doon School in Dehradun, an all-boys boarding setup. “You have crazy power dynamics and living up to standards. I could relate to the personality types you see in Girls Will Be Girls.”
All we Imagine as girlhood
Kani Kusruti had a tremendous screen year with Killer Soup, All We Imagine as Lightand Girls Will be Girls. In an earlier interview with The Hindu, the famously reticent actor had said she avoids festivals and premieres. That has changed since — just so. “I’ve been to some now,” laughs Kani, who stole the limelight at Cannes with her watermelon clutch, a symbol of Palestinian solidarity.
Her character, Anila, in Girls Will Be Girls, is overbearing, ungainly envious, yet possessed of the girlish wishfulness hinted at in the title. It’s as silently shaded a performance by Kani as the one in All We Imagine… “Throughout the story, Anila wants to be the best mother to her daughter. At the same time, we see reflections of her own unfulfilled self. It’s a complex dynamic that resonates throughout.” In one scene, we see her turn up in an oversized pink frock, and later drape a saree around her daughter.
“Mira looks painfully odd-aged in that saree,” Preeti observes. “There is way more maturity in her face than a young adult should have.”
Girls Will Be Girls streams on Prime Video from December 18
Published – December 17, 2024 05:37 pm IST