Kalki Koechlin has announced herself as one of India’s finest actresses with a brilliant performance as an aspiring songwriter afflicted by cerebral palsy in Shonali Bose’s excellent film Margarita, with a Straw, an Indian movie that had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in the Contemporary World Cinema category. The story follows Laila (Koechlin), a student who writes lyrics for an Indie band at her New Delhi university. She lives life to the full and her only obstacles seem to be the prejudices of others, such as when she is given a prize at school and the teacher freely admits that she took into consideration her disability when awarding it.

But Laila remains happy-go-lucky and wins a college scholarship to New York, travelling to the United States with her mother (Revathy). Laila’s attitude and desire to make the most of life is reflected by the filmmaker. She began writing the script under awful circumstances – on what would have been the 17th birthday of her son, four months after he took his own life. “I’m not embarrassed about my grief,” says Bose. “I just share it with everybody and have everybody share it with me, so that’s totally cool. It happened unexpectedly. I was 45. It’s his death that ultimately took me to the ultimate place of fully feeling and now I deeply love and accept myself. He gifted me that with his death somehow. Laila is searching and doesn’t love and accept herself, she is looking for external love, affirmation from others.”

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