Subhash K Jha revisits Margarita With A Straw starring the outstanding Kalki Koechlin, plus we hear from director Shonali Bose as the incredible film celebrates 11 years.
This is a film about a very special life of a specially abled girl who can’t move a limb without her mother’s help, but has the hots for… let me see, at least two boys and one woman. And we are still counting.
This is an extraordinary rendition of the mother-daughter relationship done in shades so distinctive and deep you leave behind a part of your being with the film when you leave the theatre even as you take home with you something invaluable.
Margarita With A Straw, so named because its cerebral palsy-afflicted stubbornly spirited heroine would have the cocktail in a tumbler with a straw, but have she will, is a film that leaves you profoundly enriched. The film creates a crisscross of complicated relationships among human beings who seek normalcy in their strenuously challenged lives both within their homes and outside.
But the beauty of it is, the tangles in which human beings find themselves in their quest for kinship tends to solve itself in the end. It’s the way life works, so what’s the big deal? Says this remarkable film.
Shonali Bose’s film never stops to wonder what Laila’s life would have been like had she been… well, normal. Being normal!… Now that’s a question which the film’s brilliantly written script never stops to entertain. Non-judgemental to the core and never fearful of peering into forbidden areas of the human psyche(in one of the many bravely executed sequences, Laila pleasures herself away from her mother’s watchful eyes after watching porn clips on her laptop), Margarita With A Straw blends commentary on dysfunctional lives with that sense of profound yearning which comes to any individual who aspires to go beyond his her her allotted space in life.
Laila’s aspirations take her through a geopolitical, emotional, and sexual journey that finally leaves her and us wiser. All three levels of Laila’s education are textured into the plot with a minimum of fuss. Shonali Bose cuts through moments and montages from Laila’s life with luminous austerity. We see more than what meets the eye, not only because the film’s editors(Monisha Baldawa and Bob Brooks) have done their jobs effectively but also because this film believes in saying a lot about the quality of human life without wasting time in self-pity.
Tears, you will see, don’t get a chance to roll down cheeky cheeks here. It is precisely because the film refuses to ruminate on the tragic grandeur of life that it creates a sense of unassuming dignity in the lives that we see on screen, none more bravely and emphatically dignified in adversity than Laila.
As played by the exceptionally gifted Kalki Koechlin, Laila is a bit of a tease… not just with men but with life as well. Kalki makes every encounter in Laila’s life, from Delhi University to New York University, special and memorable. I specially cherish the mother-daughter scenes between Revathi and Kalki. They are heartwarming and heartbreaking because they never forget to be completely truthful to the given (tragic) context while striving to be supremely cinematic.
This is as opportune a moment as any to say Kalki, in the central part, shines in a space where her character’s disability assumes no pre-ponderance. This is a major transcendental triumph for the actress, as much of her speech is spoken in a slur. Kalki takes Laila beyond the world of words. It is those eyes.The goddamned wounded eyes. They serve as a window to Laila’s soul.
Every actor playing character as varied as Laila’s kid brother to her Sardarji father is seems pre-destined to play the part that has chosen them. Debutant Sayani Gupta, as Laila’s militant friend, brings to her character an undeniable scrupulosity.
But it’s Kalki and Revathy who hold the delicate plot together. Their scenes, together and apart, moved me in ways I’ve not been moved in a movie for a very long time.
The film’s emotional affluence is matched by its technical finesse. The artwork and locational detailing are unfussy and matter-of-fact, as well as the casting of every character is so correct that you wonder how the director got it so right with so little self-congratulations.
Sip and savour the delicate tastes of life in Margarita With A Straw. This is a moving, heartwarming, lyrical, and yummy tale of a girl so sassy that she defines the eternal quest to seize the day. After watching her flash her middle finger at a poor, unsuspecting woman for sympathizing with her disability, I am sure of one thing. No one who watches this film would ever dare to tut-tut at a wheelchair again. Not unless you enjoy being ridiculed for thinking ‘normal’ is all about standing on your own two feet and sleeping with members of the opposite sex.
And do give a standing ovation to Kalki. That girl in yellow boots has thrown off those flashy shoes, got onto a wheelchair, and wheeled herself into eternal fame. Kalki’s performance and the film left me speechless. Kalki made me forget Laila is damaged. She left me confused about the definitions of the normal.
Shonali Bose’s stark, brutal, and real Margarita With A Straw, for which the CBFC had recommended several drastic cuts, including scenes showing love-making between the two female protagonists played by Kalki Koechlin and Sayani Gupta, was left intact… almost.
Director Shonali Bose, whose earlier film was the hard-hitting Ammo on the 1984 Sikh riots, says, “When the Examining Committee recommended drastic cuts, I was devastated. No way was I going to allow my film to be mutilated. I’ve worked hard to create every frame, every moment. No one is going to tell me what to keep and what not to keep. So, my first reaction was to celebrate when my film was passed by the Revising Committee(RC) with only one cut. But after a few hours, I began to wonder what the hell I was celebrating. It is my film, and they were threatening to cut it. Was I feeling grateful just because they made one cut? It’s like a battered wife feeling grateful that her husband has given her only one slap.”
Shonali would have fought for that one cut, too, had it affected her film. “But it doesn’t really affect my narrative. It’s a scene of heterosexual lovemaking. Even there the censor board let most of the love-making remain. They only wanted me to cut when the couple was to reach absolute climax. I agreed. It didn’t take anything much away from my film.”
What Shonali was jubilant about was that the crucial lesbian love-making scene remains. “There was no way I was going to let even a single moment of that go. When the censor board’s Examining Committee wanted that sequence reduced, I was shocked. How can they tell me that the crux of my film is invalid? I made this film. I decide what is important. But thankfully, they’ve allowed me the freedom to have my say. In a country where homosexuality is still illegal, it is no small victory to allow two women to make love in a film.”
When reminded that Deepa Mehta’s Fire had lesbian love-making scenes, Shonali laughs, “Oh, that was nothing compared with what we’ve shown.”
Shonali, who had faced illimitable hardships with the censor board during the release of Ammo, thinks censorship is redundant. “When I had objected to the cuts in Ammo, I was asked why I needed to show history to youngsters, which is better left forgotten. Yes, they actually said that to me! I am enormously relieved that Margarita With A Straw has been certified without cuts. My biggest moment of triumph was to see members of the censor board, all above the age of 45, admitting to being moved by the film.”
