Love Sonia Movie Review

Love Sonia
Friday 14 September 15:23	0 Comments
Release Date :	9/14/2018 12:00:00 AM
Director :	Tabrez Noorani
Genre :	Drama

Love Sonia

Details :

Friday, 14th September 2018, 3:15 PM IST

Love Sonia Is One Harrowing Tale That Needs To Be Told

Pluses:

The rawness and the realness of this bad world are showcased comprehensively. The journey of the main character, Sonia and performances by the entire cast will keep you hooked.

Minuses:

The film is recommended only for the adult audience and no strong plot in the second half makes it a little farcical.

Critic Rating:

3/5

Business Rating:

1/5

Verdict:

Love Sonia sums up as a movie which can only be digested by a niche audience. But, it is absolutely one.

Detailed Analysis:

Adil Hussain plays the burdened farmer with barren fields and two teenaged daughters. The fair and frail younger child, Preeti (Riya Sisodia), is sold off to the local landlord and moneylender (Anupam Kher), while the elder, stronger girl Sonia (Mrunal Thakur) is held back to help in the arid fields.

Preeti is placed in the care of a handler Anjali (Sai Tamhankar) who whisks her off to Mumbai where she will be put “to work”. A distraught Sonia, unable to bear the separation from her sister, runs away from home straight to the moneylender and right into the grimy lanes of Mumbai. Anjali presents Sonia to brothel owner Faizal (Manoj Bajpayee) and to the ‘madam’ Madhuri (Richa Chadha), who begin inducting Sonia into their fold, all the while promising to help find Preeti.

Within the seamy streets and dark world of sex, drugs, violence and exploitation, Sonia encounters myriad characters. These include fellow sex workers like Rashmi (Freida Pinto) who are irreparably damaged and resigned to their fate. She also meets a kind social worker Manish (Rajkummar Rao) and other under-age girls, such as herself, who are sold into prostitution.

Writers Noorani, Ted Caplan and Alkesh Vaja do not spare any punches. The experiences are shocking; the set-up is dark, claustrophobic and filthy. There is no joy and only flickering hope.

Sonia and Preeti serve as examples of the fate of millions of girls and women the world over. The basis of many of the vignettes are experiences and information Noorani gathered from NGOs in America and India.

The performances compensate for some directorial and script limitations. Often the story feels like a series of headlines linked together. But the compelling performances and a hard-hitting storyline power Love Sonia. Frieda Pinto finally gets a role she can bite into and she completely surrenders to the part. Similarly, Chadha manages to strike a balance between the cold-hearted commander and compassionate mentor. Bajpayee, Rao, Tamhankar, Hussain and Kher are reliably right on the beat.

But the soul of the film is Mrunal Thakur. She makes your heart lurch for the naïve and petrified teenager who often appears to be burrowing deeper into an airless tunnel. When the two-hour viewing ends, one feels the need to take a deep, deep breath.

box office capsule

Love Sonia Movie Review