The first forty minutes of skater girl is Pure Magic however we put it. Director Manjari Makijany directorial debut, after working as a production assistant in various big budgeted Blockbuster Hollywood ventures, pulls in the right cords to impress the viewers. Skater Girl is pretty ambitious project for a debutant, but the movie is genuinely engaging and touching with highlights on several sub plots in the form of patriarchy, poverty, discrimination, caste system and child marriage to name a few, that still plagues the villages in India. The vision of the movie is to be applauded and appreciated indeed.
Cinematography is brilliant, the angles and the amount of light entering the frames is just perfect. Screenplay is well written, though the storyline is cliched a bit or doesn't surprise the viewer after about an hour into the movie as things run in perfect text book symmetry sans twists or turns. Editing has some issues towards the end. However the production design, costumes and makeup are just top class. Music and sound design adds a rustic touch to the movie and helps tremendously to the storytelling. The characters and the actors of Skater Girl are the soul to the movie, with top class performances from almost everybody in the cast. Debutant and lead Rachel Saanchita Gupta stunned me with her performance, her expressions and her portrayal of emotions can easily fill a notebook. Stunning and a terrific debut performance in short.
Overall, Skater Girl draws on real-life stories of skateboarding entering rural India in the past decade including (though not credited in the movie) the saga of Ulrike Reinhard, a German lady who reportedly got skateboarding to the Madhya Pradesh village Janwaar the film's "no school, no skateboarding" sign is definitely taken from Janwaar for sure. I highly recommended the movie for family audiences. Though cliched a bit, Skater Girl, still packs enough firepower to entertain the audiences for over 109 minutes. 7.3 stars out of 10 for the portrayal of the dreams and emotions of the downtrodden masses.
Cinematography is brilliant, the angles and the amount of light entering the frames is just perfect. Screenplay is well written, though the storyline is cliched a bit or doesn't surprise the viewer after about an hour into the movie as things run in perfect text book symmetry sans twists or turns. Editing has some issues towards the end. However the production design, costumes and makeup are just top class. Music and sound design adds a rustic touch to the movie and helps tremendously to the storytelling. The characters and the actors of Skater Girl are the soul to the movie, with top class performances from almost everybody in the cast. Debutant and lead Rachel Saanchita Gupta stunned me with her performance, her expressions and her portrayal of emotions can easily fill a notebook. Stunning and a terrific debut performance in short.
Overall, Skater Girl draws on real-life stories of skateboarding entering rural India in the past decade including (though not credited in the movie) the saga of Ulrike Reinhard, a German lady who reportedly got skateboarding to the Madhya Pradesh village Janwaar the film's "no school, no skateboarding" sign is definitely taken from Janwaar for sure. I highly recommended the movie for family audiences. Though cliched a bit, Skater Girl, still packs enough firepower to entertain the audiences for over 109 minutes. 7.3 stars out of 10 for the portrayal of the dreams and emotions of the downtrodden masses.