Margarita, with a Straw - Heartwarming

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A girl in her late teens is talent, confident and full of excitement. She loves a guy, seeks for his love and want to have the sexual pleasure. This is very normal for other ‘normal’ beings but supposedly, not for a girl with a cerebral palsy. What if she starts loving a girl too? Not normal, eh! But meet Laila and think again about the people with disabilities and different sexual orientations. Like any other normal people, they also have the similar desires and pursues. Their abnormality is but just one other side of a life. Love your ‘self’ being, love for what you are. This pretty much sums the Margarita, with a Straw – directed by Shonali Bose.

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Margarita, with a Straw is not about the cerebral palsy or bisexuality; it is a heartwarming tale of a teen girl suffering from cerebral palsy and discovering her sexuality. It is wonderful that the movie shows the normal features of the character Laila. She is wheel-chair bound and depends highly on her mother but that doesn’t let her self-esteem down. She studies creative writing, she wants to flirt, she watches the porn, she has a crush on a guy, she writes lyrics for a band and she dances. When a judge awards the band as a consolation just because the lyrics is written by a girl with disability, she can show them a middle finger too. She is challenged - yes, but defeated - NO.

Movie tries to show that the western society is more generous than the Indian one, and this can’t be untrue since people’s thinking, most of the times, don’t go beyond the wheelchair in societies like ours. Neither does the infrastructure, unlike in New York as in movie, where there are ramps in public vehicles. Seriously, can people travel in their wheel chair by themselves in our country? No.

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The mother-daughter relationship is so much beautiful and has a body full of warmth. Being the most caring and doting mother that she is, she is strong, supportive and a fighter. Laila’s life wouldn’t be the same without her. Only time she doesn’t agree with her daughter is when Laila confronts her about her bisexuality and relation with her friend.  She says, “this is not normal” - for which Laila replies, “that is what people said about me”.

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Laila’s relationship with Khanum, a blind half-Pakistani-half-Bangladeshi lesbian girl, is portrayed nicely too. Complications are bound to be there and they’re shown staying close to reality. Laila discovers about her bisexuality while spending time with Khanum in New York and she accepts it, of course the self-confident Khanum helps her to accept herself. Meanwhile, she also gets intimate with the boy that has been helping her in writing in New York University. She confesses about it to Khanum later when they are back in India and this builds an ice block in their relationship.

While Shonali Bose is very good at direction, her writing part does not seem free from flaws. When the mother faces quite a hard situation whether to accept her daughter’s sexuality normally or not, it would have been better to show her difficulties first rather than making her character die from cancer. Before dying, she asks Laila about Khanum, hinting her acceptance. But what more? She dies! And it obviously becomes the emotional scene.

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Kalki Koechlin – brilliant is the word for her performance. Not a single time in a movie, she looks out of her character. So deep she goes, she is Laila indeed, a girl with cerebral palsy. Her decent expressions and body language are worth applauding. Her performance makes this movie more amazing. Revathy has done a good job as a mother. She is just so natural. But for an actor of her calibre, the character seems a bit lagging behind. Given more meaty plots, she would have done even better for sure. Sayani Gupta as Khanum is good too. She makes her character alive. Other actors support them well.

Even with the flaws, this movie emerges as a really good one. When at the end, Laila, with brightness and smile on her face, is shown having a date with herself in a restaurant, drinking Margarita, with a Straw and looking at the mirror, it feels content just like Laila. Final words – Sensible and Heart-warming!

I got to watch this one late, but late is better than never. This movie touched the heart. Kalki Koechlin is truly one powerhouse of talent.