Margarita With A Straw- All Reviews.

Margarita with a Straw Movie Reviews

TOI

Genre: Drama

Duration: 1 hour 41 minutes

THIS SPECIAL MARGARITA WILL MAKE YOU LAUGH AND CRY

Story: Laila has a love of life - and cerebral palsy. Tasting bittersweet flavours, does Laila come of age?

Review: So, a Margarita is usually sweet - but this one has a cutting edge. Laila (Kalki) loves music, romance and people - but cerebral palsy impairs her motor functions. Laila's loving mother Shubhangi (Revathi) supports her through college. But what happens when Laila meets Khanum (Sayani) and discovers new shades to her sexuality?

Can Shubhangi cope with Laila's secret - and Laila with Shubhangi's?

Margarita with a Straw is an acting triumph. Kalki is amazing, imprisoned in a wheelchair but her spirit flying as she tastes the delights and dilemmas, from crushes to creative pushes, of a college student's life. Giggling, crying, even masturbating, Kalki portrays Laila, charmer, bummer, winner, with unabashed perfection, cheekily asking a shopkeeper for vibrators, the man, thinking of mobiles, responding, 'Maine toh apni wife ko bhi vibrator pe daala hua hai!'

Kalki's matched perfectly by Revathi who shines as a slightly dull middle-class mom, stoically driving a van that evokes Hollywood's quirky Little Miss Sunshine. Their mother-daughter love's so strong, you can almost touch it, just as you can feel the electricity that frizzles angrily between them when they quarrel.

Some scenes are wryly funny - when Laila confesses, 'Ai, main bi hoon', her mother, tired of housework, crossly responds, 'Main kya kam bai hoon?' - while others evoke despair and hope in minutely-detailed settings.

The story is a breakthrough, portraying physical challenges with brightness, not bathos, and the direction's super-sensitive - catch Laila's eyes when she's carried upstairs - yet going boldly where few filmmakers have. Some scenes discomfit - Laila and friend Jared (William) have a bathroom encounter - while others, like family dinners, karela joked over by Laila's father and brother (Kuljeet and Malhaar, both quietly competent) soothe.

The script somewhat over-diligently ticks every possible 'challenge' box, mixed marriages to a Pakistani-Bangladeshi visually affected lesbian. But that small quibble aside, MWAS is deeply moving, a philosophical film which makes you wonder if the body is a palace or prison - and evokes mothers to lovers who've cherished your soul.

Try this Margarita - it's different.

_____________________________________________________


India-Forums

Margarita With A Straw - Movie Review

Cast: Kalki Koechlin, Sayani Gupta, Revathi; Director: Shonali Bose; Rating: ****

Thursday, April 16, 2015 | Copyright: India-forums.com/Bollywood | 1 Comments | 1469 Views

Why are people with a certain disability or deformity looked upon as a social burden? Aren't they allowed to lead a normal functioning life, like all of us? This is not a social media post where you like and share and scream out to the world that 'look how large hearted I am'. Physical love, one of the basic necessities of human life, is usually considered unnecessary for the differently abled. We usually think that these people don't have those kinds of emotions or feelings. Shonali Bose's Margarita With A Straw is a wonderful way to make us think otherwise. Even though the idea may not fancy most of the people, it's definitely a thought worth pondering on. Certain experiences in Shonali's personal life and a few references together form a masterpiece called Margarita With A Straw.

Laila Kapoor who has cerebral palsy aspires to make a future in the field of music. Margarita With A Straw is story about her, who tries to discover her sexuality, fighting all societal norms.

I would want to bow down to Kalki Koechlin for her marvellous performance as Laila Kapoor. A normal person would never understand what a person with cerebral palsy goes through. But if it's anything like what Kalki portrays in the movie, you will shudder at the thought of it. Goosebumps prick on my skin when I recollect the various difficulties of daily chores she has shown in the performance. The only normally functioning aspect of a person with cerebral palsy is his brain. The dilemma she undergoes, in the process of knowing her sexuality is enacted with utmost honesty. She is so adorable in the movie that you would just feel like leaping into a hug with her, not due to sympathy, but because you will adore her.

Sayani Gupta plays Khanum who is Laila's love interest in the film. She is visually impaired, in the film. But she comes across to be a very strong, opinionated woman despite of her disability. She looks to be comfortable in the skin of her character and doesn't awkward playing a lesbian. She does a convincing job and looks beautiful too.

Revathi plays Kalki's mother in the movie. She plays the quintessential mother, who knows her daughter is completely dependent on her and doesn't frown for a single second. Even though she herself is terminally ill in the film, she doesn't stop for a single moment and tries to give her daughter the best possible life in her capability. When Laila confronts her to say that she is romantically involved with Khanum, like a conservative Indian mother she flips out. Revathi is the best example of expressing just with her face. She is an impeccable actor and her talent demands as well as deserves reverence.

There are only three songs in the movie and have some of the most beautiful lyrics flown out of Prasoon Joshi's pen. The edit of the film is very crisp and sums up the movie to less than two hours.

All in all this film gives you a liberating feeling but also comes with its share of melancholy. This weekend do get a Margarita With A Straw, it's like something you have never sipped on!

Anita Menon

Firstpost

Margarita With A Straw review: Kalki's brilliant in this heartfelt yet flawed film

by Deepanjana Pal Apr 16, 2015 13:04 IST

In a modest apartment in Delhi, there lives a girl named Laila who has a loving family, goes to college, and in her free time, dreams of orgasms. Her heart belongs to the lead singer of the college band. When he makes it clear to her that he doesn't like like her, she's devastated. Fortunately, the universe has something for Laila to make up for the pain of heartbreak: a scholarship to study at New York University. In New York, she scores an excellent discount on an iPad, flirts, watches po*n, gets jiggy with pretty much everyone she's attracted to " it seems if Laila asks, the universe will indeed make sure she receives.

If Laila was a svelte, sprightly and sexy young woman, then this could have been one of the sub-plots of any commercial film in any language. However, Laila has cerebral palsy and is wheelchair-bound in Shonali Bose's Margarita, With A Straw.

There are two reasons to cheer for Margarita, With A Straw wholeheartedly: director Shonali Bose's intent and actor Kalki Koechlin's talent. Bose's decision to make a film on a character who isn't "normal" deserves all the praise she's got, because the emphasis is upon how Laila is very much a regular teenager, but for her impaired motor skills. The love scenes that could have been weird or coy are shot in a way that makes you feel tenderness towards the on-screen lovers. The film has had to suffer a few edits, but cheers to Bose and the CBFC, because a film with a lesbian romance has made it past censors and will be seen in theatres in a country where homosexuality is technically a criminal offence.

Koechlin's performance has been praised and talked about widely, and for good reason. Considering how rare it is to find a nuanced female character in Hindi cinema, it's not surprising Koechlin was eager to play Laila. Koechlin has done a good job of miming the physicality of someone with cerebral palsy, but what is truly remarkable is the lack of artifice in her expressions. Koechlin is fantastic at showing that combination of vulnerability, unsureness as well as mulish determination that is adolescence. Not for a moment does she seem false.

Unfortunately, these two qualities are not enough to make up for a simplistic script that is more intent upon reducing the audience to tears than telling a good story. Laila is the only real person in the film. Almost every other character is either a placeholder or like Laila's first girlfriend Khanum (Sayani Gupta) strangely plastic.

It's a sign of how ungainly the script is that an actress of Revathy's calibre struggles to make a character feel credible. Revathy plays Laila's mother and thanks to Koechlin and Revathy's acting, the strength of their relationship comes through despite the awkwardly-written scenes. Unfortunately, at the critical point where Revathy's character must make the choice between seeing Laila as a child who needs her, or accepting Laila is her own person, Bose throws in a completely unnecessary doozy to remove Revathy from the narrative.

There's also the bewildering setup that life for the differently-abled is a piece of cake in the West. Had Bose chosen to focus upon how even unforgiving cities like New York keep wheelchairs in mind by showing ramps in buildings and public transport, it would have been a pointed and pertinent argument about how inconsiderate Indian cities are. Our civic infrastructure not only neglects the differently-abled, but is positively dangerous for all those who aren't able-bodied. However, the way Bose shows New York, the city becomes a haven for Laila not because its urban planning includes the differently-abled easier, but because people look beyond disability. From the bus conductor to the cute stud in class, all the white people treat Laila like a regular person while in India, no one can see beyond her crumpled body. To accord this much open-mindedness to the West is a little generous, to put it mildly.

Indian attitudes to disability are shameful and it's true that the same stigma doesn't present itself abroad, but that doesn't mean Americans " or even New Yorkers " don't stare, or that they're more tolerant about those with garbled speech, or that differently-abled aren't treated differently. Then again, for all of its serious-cinema credentials, Margarita With A Straw is not particularly rooted in realism. Laila is apparently a musical prodigy of sorts, but she appears to be studying Creative Writing (on a scholarship) at New York University. For a film that's supposed to be about curiosity about sex, it's a shame that Bose completely ignores how Laila and her lovers negotiate her physical issues and lack of muscular control. Margarita With A Straw doesn't provide any inkling that aligning body parts can be delicate. Neither is there any hint that Laila's lovers are nervous about inadvertently hurting her, for instance, which you'd hope they would be. Sex in Margarita With A Straw moves with the smoothness of a lovemaking scene in a Mills & Boon novel.

Although Margarita With A Straw has many sweet and heartwarming moments, the film feels clumsy on the whole. Bose has packed too many issues into her script: being differently-abled, figuring out one's sexuality, queer relationships, sexual frustration, death. Each of these jostles for space with the next and Bose isn't able to weave all of them into the narrative. The script's notion of propelling the story forward is to tug at one heartstring and then another, and it's to Koechlin's credit that this emotional manipulation doesn't feel exhausting.

However, the actress's performance, though praise-worthy, is uneven. Laila's posture and control over her hands improves noticeably as the film progresses. Sometimes, her head is lolling and sometimes, it's perfectly-held. The girl who fell off a chair if she moved away from her back support is eventually seen sitting upright, without any support or a wheelchair in sight. The wrist and fingers that were initially curled awkwardly and struggled to obey her brain's commands are able to rub her mother's feet and even hold on to a bar of soap. In fact, the more Laila has sex, the more her motor skills improve. Who'd have thunk?

It's ironic that just when the story has her asserting her identity, Laila also starts looking less differently-abled than before. One of the central ideas of Margarita With A Straw is that Laila may be limited by cerebral palsy, but she isn't constrained by it. She's able to be heard, become accomplished and be a complete person, because her body doesn't define her. And yet, the film undercuts this very idea by subtly yet noticeably improving Laila's physical condition just when the story has her blossoming.

Ultimately, Margarita With A Straw is a film with a lot of heart and a powerful performance from Koechlin, but you can't help feeling that Laila deserved better.

Margarita, With A Straw movie review: This tasty slice of life is Kalki Koechlin's best performance EVER!

Shonali Bose comes back to direction with a dhamaka. Here's how her latest offering is...

Before I write down the review, let me thank a few people without whom I never would have the chance to review this little gem of a film. Firstly, the Censor Board, for not massacring the film for its bold content. Secondly, the film's distributors for finally bringing the movie to our screens. After all, films that earn high praise in international film festivals hardly get a proper release here. If in doubt about this fact, have a word with the makers of Dekh India Circus and Liar's Dice. Now, let's get down to the review...

What's it about

Margarita With A Straw is a slice of life narrative about Laila's (Kalki Koechlin) search to find sexual acceptance within herself. As the trailers already told you, Laila is not a normal girl by looks - she suffers from cerebral palsy, and needs help even to visit the bathroom. But her parents (Revathy and Kuljeet Singh) and friends never let her feel like an outcast. Her friends admire her talent in composing music for their band. Margarita, however, yearns to explore herself sexually but her condition doesn't allow her to spread her wings. When her crush, their band's lead singer, rebuffs her, she goes into depression and doesn't want to return to college. To lift her spirits, her mother allows her to go to New York to complete her studies. There she meets a good looking college-mate, Jared, with whom she is immediately smitten with, and Khanum (Sayani Gupta), a blind lesbian, who leads Laila into journey of self-exploration. The director has based this movie on her own cousin, who suffers a similar affliction.

What's hot

The film is unlike any other film made in Bollywood. After all, which mainstream Hindi film has a lead, who is wheelchair-bound all the time and has trouble making proper speech, as well having same-sex tendencies? Right from the opening scene, where Revathy is shown driving her family around in a wobbly van, while her husband is sitting next to her, singing Punjabi ditties - you know you are in for something different. The first half of the film is mesmerising, as Laila breezes through various odds in her personal life, before she meets Khanum. The sex scenes are tastefully done, though I am not sure if the Censors did any kind of tinkering in there. Shonali's Bose's direction is fine, as she expertly handles certain mature content and relationship subtext, though she does falter her and there. The music gels well with the narrative.

Moving on to the performances, the acting is top-notch, especially Kalki, Sayani Gupta and Revathy. Revathy has yet again proven her vesatility as a loving mother, whose sweet smile envelops all worries, while her silent glances hides a different darker secret. Sayani Gupta, in her first major role in a Hindi film, shines. However, the film belongs to Kalki. I am not an auteur on cerebral paralysis, so I am not sure how exactly the afflicted people behave. But you can never have any such doubt when you see Kalki's performance. It's very difficult to distinguish the actor from the character, and she needs to be hailed for attempting such a role, which many mainstream heroines would never even dare to touch. I am sure she has her name cemented in the top of the awards list next year.

What's not

As much I hate to say it, the movie, like many other Hindi films, suffers from a tepid second half. The narrative lags here at many points, making us feel that the director had said everything she wanted in the first half itself, and has little left to say here. The additional sub-plot of an affliction one of Laila's loved ones suffer, feels forced just to insert more drama in the proceedings. The editors could have worked up a bit in these sequences. Also, I had this little nagging feeling that the entire movie is Kalki's and Shonali's take on Deepika Padukone's Vogue video. There could have been a bit more exploration on the other aspects of Laila's life, apart from her sexuality. After all, is sexuality the only determining factor for spreading one's wings? Also certain sequences are added only for clich purposes, like the award ceremony for the Rock Band competition (too cringe worthy!) and the protests in New York (no purpose, other than a plot device to meet two characters).

What To Do

I admit I had more expectations from MWAS, especially after the glowing reviews it had received from almost everyone in Bollywood. But that shouldn't stop me from recommending this movie as a definite must-watch this weekend. After all, don't we always complain about the lack of quality films in Bollywood? Margarita...may not be a masterpiece, but it certainly has its straw...sorry, heart in its right place!

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Reviewed by BollywoodLife

* Poor

** Average

*** Good

**** Very good

***** Excellent

Film Review: Margarita with a Straw

Sanjukta Sharma

Kalki Koechlin in a still from the film.

Shonali Bose's Margarita with a Straw is about Laila, a gawky, limpid-eyed, stubbornly willful girl bound to a wheel chair because of cerebral palsy.

Defying the possibilities that this one-line descriptor opens up, it is a beguilingly unstressed film. Bose does not drill in lessons on disability; she does not romantizise or demonize disability for dramatic results, and her lead actor Kalki Koechlin does not play the part like it is an acting stunt.

Koechlin, last seen in a wishy-washy Barbie mock-up in last year's Happy Ending, does not merely work out minuscule variations of one erratic note or tic for her character, as actors playing characters with disability often do. Remember Dustin Hoffman's Raymond Babbit in Rainman (1988)? Unforgettable (and with Down's Syndrome, not cerebral palsy), but entirely and relentlessly an actor's showcase role. Hoffman chipped at it with a petulant sameness. Laila is as tender as she is self-serving, and Koechlin tries to bring alive the irrepressible human being on that wheelchair while being committed to the character's behavioral truth. Laila's inner journey is the story, not her disability or the actor's portrayal of disability.

Bose has a light touch on the material, never preachy, never letting go of the tragic limitations that Laila's condition imposes on her, and yet with enough room for humour. Coupled with Koechlin's translation of that treatment on screen, it is a film suited for all kinds of audiences"as it happens, the acid test for any film releasing in Indian theatres.

Laila, in her late teens, lives with her father (Baljit Singh), mother (Revathy) and younger brother (Malhar Khushu). We meet Laila at an age in which she is acutely aware of her sexuality, and secretly surfs internet po*n. The family is somewhat like the sturdy van the mother drives all four of them around in"tenacious, roomy and comfortable. Laila's backbone is her mother, a finely-nuanced portrait by Revathy of maternal fortitude and fire. Laila is smart and connected. She is almost always on chat, composes music online, and sells gold to buy an iPad. She is truthful and adventurous. While on a scholarship to study creative writing at New York University, she meets Khanum (Sayani Gupta), a visually impaired Pakistani girl, and they fall in love.

Bisexuality, emotional courage and the pain of loss are Bose's spindles for the story. The setting is important in as much as it shows how a city allows a person with disability freedom and confidence of mobility. We see that Delhi is far behind New York, but not through dialogues or long-drawn scenes.

The director, who has also written the story, is working inside out: How does Laila, fond of the occasional Margarita, find herself, and what happens to the two women heartbreakingly close to her? How far can Laila go?

Watching Margarita with a Straw, I smiled and laughed a lot. Even in moments when I felt deep sympathy for her, the girl was sassy.

Margarita with a Straw releases in theatres on Friday.