Margarita, With A Straw

"Margarita, With A Straw" tells the story of Laila (Kalki Koechlin), a precocious Indian woman with a passion for writing Hindi pop rock lyrics and for cute boys. She has cerebral palsy. Her disability is part of her experience but it doesn't define her identity.

Laila receives a scholarship to NYU. She meets Khanum (Sayani Gupta) at an Occupy Wall Street Rally. They begin an affair and secretly move in together. Their romance brings them back to India where Laila and Khanum must confront the nature of their relationship. Meanwhile, Laila's mom, Shubhangini (Revathy), has cancer.

This movie confronts the inspirational fetishization of the disabled community while telling a beautiful story about tackling adversity through emotional maturation and discovery of self. Koechlin gives a vibrant performance as Laila that is as physically truthful as it emotionally realistic. She bestows Laila the personhood she deserves without pandering to stereotype.

Sayani Gupta as the sensual Khanum is bracing in her role. Her fierce independence and struggle for freedom in a world stagnating in stigma is a joy to watch.

Revathy is perfect as gentle but firm Shubhangini. She's warm, kind, and funny in all the ways that the ideal mother should be. Her character's disappointment evokes a sadness and shame that reaches through the screen to touch the viewer.

"Margarita, With A Straw" is a movie about a woman embracing independence and emotional maturity. The female lead happens to be disabled. Take away the wheelchair and this is a finely tuned serio-romantic comedy. Bose's movie shouldn't be provocative because a woman in a wheelchair feels sexual desire and has sex. Instead, it should be lauded for its excellent storytelling, symbolic uses of color, and evocative scene painting.

The synopsis used in this movie's advertisements focuses on an edgy theme of normal looking people finding a disabled woman sexy. In the film, there's a wonderful scene in which Laila gives the finger to a jury panel who've rewarded her based solely on her disability, not on merits. It's glorious to see Laila react with such ferocity. This particular sentiment should be applied directly to the marketing firm that decided to sell "Margarita With A Straw" based on its "otherness" and not its finer qualities. The movie is still very good. The marketing firm is not.

This story is part of our special report: "Wicked Queer: Boston LGBTQ Film Festival". Want to read more? Here's the full list.