Pushing Buttons Studio, Dolce Vita Films, Crawling Angel Films, Cinema Inutile, Blink Digital, Arte Cofinova 19 and Hummelfilm’s Girls Will Be Girls (English) is a coming-of-age film. Set in a boarding school in the Himalayan foothills, it centres around a teenage girl, Mira’s (Preeti Panigrahi) romance with a charming new student, Srinivas (Kesav Binoy Kiron), and her sexual awakening thereafter. It also deals with her at-times strained relationship with her protective mother, Anila (Kani Kusruti).
Shuchi Talati has written a story about a curious young girl being charmed by a new student in her school and her quest to learn about the birds and the bees. The story is not interesting and Shuchi Talati’s screenplay is so slow-paced that it often tests the viewers’ patience. While the scenes between Mira, her mother and Srinivas are quite interesting because of the obstinate stands of Mira and her mother, the drama moves so slowly that it often just doesn’t move. The freedom which Mira’s mother gives Srinivas may not be appreciated by the masses. In fact, the entire drama has a very class touch about it. Talati’s dialogues are quite simple.
Preeti Panigrahi is very natural as Mira. Her acting is mature. Kesav Binoy Kiron acts with effortless ease in the role of Srinivas. Kani Kusruti makes her presence amply felt as Mira’s mother with a supremely natural performance. Kajol Chugh is adequate as Priya. Nandini Verma makes an impression as Divya. Devika Shahani leaves a mark as Ms. Bansal. Akash Pramanik has his moments as Hardik. Jitin Gulati performs ably as Harish. Aman Desai (as Vikrant), Sumit Sharma (as Pratik), Pratap Singh (as Mr. Bakshi), Himanshu Jani (as Mr. Burman), Neeraj Varma (as Mr. Thomas), Ved Amrita (as Rita), Ahana Malla (as Aditi), Megha Singh Aggarwal (as Tina), Chirag Behl (as the store boy), Jatin Sehgal (as Nisarg), Samta Goyal, Mamta S. Chauhan (both as teachers), Tanu Gusain (as Ms. Batra) and Kapil Raj (as the hostel watchman) lend fine support.
Shuchi Talati’s direction is of the kind which makes the film class-appealing. Sneha Khanwalkar’s music is okay. Garima Obrah’s lyrics are not of the kind which are easy on the lips. Pierre Oberkampf’s background music is average. Jih-E Peng’s cinematography is good. Avyakta Kapur’s production designing and Arzoo Ali’s art direction are proper. Amrita David’s editing ought to have been tighter.
On the whole, Girls Will Be Girls has very limited appeal as it is meant for the classes mainly.
Released on 19-12-’24 on Amazon Prime.
