Bad Girl Movie Review: Varsha Bharath’s Bad Girl is an exciting debut in Tamil cinema and the first bold take on womanhood and identity. The film stars Anjali Sivaraman in an interesting leading role. The film opened its first curtain at the International Film Festival Rotterdam before hitting the cinemas. Unlike the usual coming-of-age melodramas, Bad Girl manipulates the time frame for almost two decades, depicting love, mistakes, and self-discovery.
The movie follows Ramya (Anjali Sivaraman) from her teenage to thirty years of age. Ramya bristles against her strict mother Sundari (Shanti Priya) even while secretly nurturing feelings for Nalan (Hridhu Haroon) as a restless 15-year-old. College life brings Arjun (Sashank Bommireddipalli) into her life. Soon her idealistic expectations from love crash like a house of cards. At 32, Ramya stands all alone and realizes hard facts about her recurrent patterns of relationships and the strained bond with her mother after her parting with Irfan (Teejay Arunasalam).
At the core of Bad Girl is an examination of how women grapple with societal impositions and the distortions of their own flawed desires. The screenplay by Varsha Bharath suffuses warmth and unflinching honesty into the tale, achieved through the offering of humor as well as the grinding pain of the experience. The richly imaginary canvas from Preetha Jayaraman, Jagadeesh Ravi, and Prince Anderson heightens Amit Trivedi’s soundtrack and emboldens Ramya’s emotional journey.
Anjali Sivaraman is striking as Ramya, capturing her stubbornness, vulnerability, and eventual maturity. Shanti Priya’s conflicted mother adds to the emotional depth and the very relationship makes it one of the strongest pillars of the film.
Very basic storytelling that speaks unapologetically about the lives of women.
Mind blowing performances of Anjali Sivaraman and Shanti Priya.
Immersive world-building that makes school, college and adulthood realistic.
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Pacing slows down during the mid segments which dilutes the emotional intensity.
Repetitive cycles of relationships make certain portions of the narrative predictable.
Low mass appeal, more a niche audience resonance than for the commercial cinema lover.
Bold, emotional, and refreshingly honest. While this may not appeal to the masses, it will be an experience worth the trip to the theatre for those who appreciate multilayered storytelling. OTT would be more appropriate for mainstream audiences, but cinephiles will treasure its moment of authenticity on the big screen.
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