Review: Love Sonia
Cinema That Tells the Truth
Independent cinema by its very nature often gets a linguistic edge from critics in its reviews. We often hear and/or read adjectives like ‘hard-hitting’, ‘gritty’, ‘realistic’, etc. etc. while describing such movie that pops its head up every now and then in the ocean of mainstream barrage.
However, Tabrez Noorani’s ‘Love Sonia’ earns every single one of those adjectives and how!
Noorani’s approach to the film strips its already naked subject from all of its artifice. It’s a subject we all know and are aware of but continuously choose to ignore out of convenience. It’s a simple story of a teenage girl on the search for her sister who has been taken away from her as a form of compensation. What follows is a series of hideous trials the protagonist has to go through to fulfil her initial quest. A quest that exposes her — and the audience — to the heinous underbelly of human culture.
Much of this nightmarish world is created by Lukasz Bielan’s stark cinematography. The desperate yet transparent village life that is constantly exposed in bright sunlight contrasts with the city of Mumbai soaked in shadows. The camera captures enough details in between the lines of light in a room full of shadows to put us off guard. Sonia’s point of view is our point of view. So when the film moves to a bigger and more glamorous world in the second half, we can see through the facade of an upper-class world and stay close to the truth.
And the lead played by Mrunal Thakur does a great job of transmitting that truth through her assured performance. Even the supporting cast populated by Richa Chadda, Freida Pinto, Sai Tamhankar, Adil Hussain and a cameo by Anupam Kher and Rajkummar Rao are all top notch. However, if there is one actor who takes the cake is Manoj Bajpayee. After coming out hot on the heals of his performance in Gali Guleiyan, saying Bajpayees’s performance in this film is brilliant would be a gross understatement. I would be really surprised if I see a better performance in world cinema this year than Manoj Bajpayee’s monstrously appalling Faizal.
However, the film does have its hiccups. The second half loses the unrelenting pace set in the first half. I have another issue but that would be a spoiler so not stating it here. But that complain maybe just be because I am a cynical fu*k.
All in all, Love Sonia is a hard-hitting film with gritty performances embedded in a realistic setting which will both enthral you and anger you. It fulfils the primary job of cinema — to tell the truth. So if it gets a release in the cinemas in your city, then I urge you to go and watch this film on a big screen.
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