|
 
 |
| FILM REVIEW |
|
| Year : 2022 | Volume
: 2
| Issue : 1 | Page : 65 |
|
Margarita with a straw
Monika Sharma
Department of Pediatrics, Christian Medical College, Ludhiana, Punjab, India
| Date of Submission | 28-Jan-2021 |
| Date of Decision | 31-Jan-2022 |
| Date of Acceptance | 01-Feb-2022 |
| Date of Web Publication | 25-Feb-2022 |
Correspondence Address:
Monika Sharma
Department of Pediatrics, Christian Medical College, Brown Road, Ludhiana - 141 008, Punjab
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None
DOI: 10.4103/ipcares.ipcares_33_22
How to cite this article:
Sharma M. Margarita with a straw. Indian Pediatr Case Rep 2022;2:65 |
I have watched “Margarita with a straw,” in the theater, on the 1st day of its release in 2014. Well, not many will find it a theater worthy film, because after all it is not a “mainstream” movie, is it? The word “mainstream” is the catch here. It depends on how you interpret it. Moreover, that is exactly what the movie tries to draw our attention to.
“Margarita with a straw” is a movie about a college student with a keen interest in music and creative writing who starts an undergraduate course in Delhi University but decides to pursue her education in New York after the first semester, partly due to her tryst with the “mainstream.” Kalki Koechlin, quite convincingly, plays the lead role of Laila who happens to be a girl with cerebral palsy. The movie begins with an apparently normal family in a Matador driven by her mother. Everyone seems to be “typical” till Laila begins to speak, and you realize that she has locomotor dysfunction. The movie subtly presents to you a family that has worked through the accommodations and adjustments necessary for their elder child who happens to have a disability. The Matador is modified to accommodate the wheelchair which Laila maneuvers around a campus that does not have a ramp, but she manages in the film. Which brings to mind that in stark reality, not every student with a similar problem may be fortunate enough to have an automated wheelchair, or friends and cooperative helpers who are willing to manually lift them with their adaptive transport equipment to their classrooms when the lift is not working.
Theatrical release poster. Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margarita_with_a_Straw. Last accessed 2022 Jan 27
It is just like any other movie…a teenager experiences as she comes of age – learning how to adjust to college life in a new city while living on her own; handling the tumultuous emotions of loving someone, the exploration of her own sexuality, and trying to balance the equations in family and life! The difference lies in the depiction of her experiences with a society that sees her differently. She showcases a song that she has composed in a competition, and wins, but only because the judges see her wheelchair as a more suitable reason to be given the first prize, than the beauty of her composition! She can love like any other teenage girl but will still be judged for her physical state instead. A friend in a wheelchair reminds her, “being friends with 'normal' people does not make you 'normal' Laila!” What/who is “normal” really? Why don't you watch the movie and decide for yourself?
The movie attempts to highlight the fact that individuals with disability are but like the rest of us, as mainstream as can be! Moreover, it deserves to be enjoyed like a Margarita…sip by sip, with a straw!
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
|
Search Pubmed for