Margarita With A Straw Turns 9: Shonali Bose Recalls Hearing 'Showing Sexuality Of Disabled Is Setting Them Up For Rape' | EXCL

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. Shonali Bose's film never stops to wonder what the protagonist 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-judgmental 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 her allotted space in life. 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. 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

In an exclusive chat with Zoom, Shonali Bose talked about the film in length and how Margarita With A Straw has stood the test of time even after nine years.

Excerpts from the interview

How do you look back on the journey that was Margarita With A Straw?

Margarita with a Straw was a journey my co-director Nilesh Maniyar and I ventured on, makes us proud because it has gone through the test of time and continues to affect people and help many.

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It has stood the test of time….

Nothing would have been possible without the stellar cast and crew, who stood by us. But even after 9 years we sit with a censor certificate that says “This film’s theme is not eligible for family viewing”.

Really?

Yes, a film that was celebrated by families and school teachers and shown to a thousand teenagers at the Giffony Film Festival (Italy), was thought of as a theme that’s not okay for adults in our country. Recently a remark we heard was that by showing the sexuality of the disabled we are setting them up for rape! So one wonders how far we have come in almost a decade.

You and Nilesh Maniyar seem to be fine-tuned into what makes life such a pain and pleasure.

Maybe that’s why we have continued as partners to work together and individually on films that shake the status quo on disability. We wrote The Sky is Pink together. Nilesh directed a docu Black Sunshine Baby (on Netflix) where Aisha from The Sky Is Pink is looked at as an artist, not a dying disabled girl.

Disability seems your special ability?

We are writing two more films that celebrate disabilities in different ways. This wasn’t a journey we had planned, but we embraced it and are so glad that we are making an impact, about a section of society that has been invisibilised.

ALSO READ: The Sky Is Pink Director Shonali Bose Contracts COVID For 2nd Time: I’m Gobsmacked


Not too many know Nilesh was your co-director in Margarita With A Straw?

He was truly the equal partner on this. Brilliant writer and director himself. Raatrani - my Modern Love film, he solo wrote. And now Nilesh is in early prep of his own big sports drama.