Girls Will Be Girls review – sym­pa­thet­ic to teendom

At 27, I find life more com­plex than I did at 17, but boy did my hor­mon­al self feel con­fused back then. As a girl who goes to sleep with crys­tals on my win­dowsill in an attempt to get rid of bad ener­gy, my younger self would have dreamt about a man­u­al on how to nav­i­gate com­plex­i­ties such as boys and emo­tions, etc. Shuchi Talati’s impres­sive debut fea­ture Girls Will Be Girls is a sen­si­tive and qui­et addi­tion to the com­ing-of-age genre that is relat­able whether you’re a young teen going through love for the first time, or look­ing back on those excit­ing yet heart­break­ing years of so many firsts.

The film, which debuted to plau­dits at the 2024 Sun­dance Film Fes­ti­val, fol­lows Mira (Preeti Pan­i­grahi), the first female pre­fect at her school in north India. Her new­found respon­si­bil­i­ty means keep­ing every­one in check, regard­less of what oth­ers think of her. The arrival of new stu­dent Sri (Kesav Binoy Kiron) dis­rupts Mira’s squeaky-clean image, while cre­at­ing fur­ther sep­a­ra­tion between her­self and her moth­er Ani­ta (Kani Kus­ru­ti). As Mira and Sri’s rela­tion­ship slow­ly and sub­tly begins to blos­som, so does his close­ness to her moth­er. Despite only get­ting close to her daughter’s suit­or to pro­tect her from any poten­tial heartache, the film’s sec­ond act begins to feel like we have embarked on an emo­tion­al love tri­an­gle, fuelled by jeal­ousy and competition.

Inspired by her own expe­ri­ences at her school in the Indi­an city of Vado­dara, Talati per­fect­ly cap­tures teen angst and the inten­si­ty that comes with crush­es and first loves. Secre­cy comes to mind when we embark on our own sex­u­al awak­en­ings: hid­den ren­dez-vous and hid­ing facts from par­ents that gen­er­ate both excite­ment and anx­i­ety. In one scene we see Mira in the show­er prac­tis­ing her kiss­ing tech­niques on her hand, some­thing we have all done at some point. Short­ly after, her rela­tion­ship with Sri devel­ops on a sex­u­al level.

While Sri is hon­est about his pre­vi­ous expe­ri­ences, Mira begins to doubt her­self but nev­er­the­less feels ready to embark on her own jour­ney of self-explo­ration. Talati’s del­i­cate direc­tion should be applaud­ed. As a view­er watch­ing this all unfold, it’s hard not to relate to Mira’s expe­ri­ence. The film’s gen­tle pace and dul­cet score empha­sise the pres­sures that can go on in our minds dur­ing times of ques­tion­ing and mak­ing sure we are mak­ing the right choices.

Lessons are always learned in our for­ma­tive years, espe­cial­ly when it comes to romance and sex. We are nev­er ready, yet we are always ready. Girls Will Be Girls has relata­bil­i­ty at its core, and is sym­pa­thet­ic to what an impor­tant peri­od this is. Despite the film los­ing some momen­tum on the home stretch, this can’t take away from its over­all mes­sage – there’s no stronger bond than that between a moth­er and her daughter.