An ideal student, 16-year-old Mira is the first-ever female prefect at a strict Himalayan boarding school who guards a risky secret: a forbidden romance with Sri, the charming new student in her class. When her mother Anila finds out about them, things don’t go south as Mira expects. Instead, Anila allows Sri to become a regular visitor at their home. Not only does Mira have a safe place to meet her boyfriend, but for the first time in her life, she is also allied with her mother. Until mother and daughter clash against each other.

Debutante writer-director Shuchi Talati observes the contradictions of teenage rebellion with sensitivity and wit, suggesting a counter to the cliched depictions of female sexual awakening on the Indian screen. The film’s attention to envisioning female characters with complex motivations is elevated by Preeti Panigrahi and Kani Kusruti’s scene-stealing turns that provide irresistible moments of tension and chemistry. For a film made up of transgressions, Girls Will Be Girls boasts of surprising tenderness, even when it casts its eye on a society that weaponises a vicious web of shame against women, punishing them for their defiance.

- Poulomi Das