Margarita with a Straw

Of my list of over 800 WLW movies, Margarita with a Straw is the only one I know featuring lead characters with physical disability. The lead character in the film is a young Indian woman with cerebral palsy. Her female love interest is a Pakistani woman who is blind. So the movie’s already hit it out of the park in terms of diversity and representation. But is the movie actually good? Yes. Absolutely.

Margarita with a Straw’s lead character is Laila, a young women with cerebral palsy. Laila’s primary care giver is her mother, Shubhangini. Incredibly loving though the relationship is, Laila sometimes chafes at her mother keeping such a close eye on her. After her first heartbreak, Laila gets a scholarship to study creative writing in New York. Here, she continues to path to independence. She also meets Khanum, a blind woman. The two women form a close relationship and then romance. Eventually, they move in together. After some months, Laila and Khanum travel to India to spend the summer with Laila’s family. However, Laila’s mother is hiding a serious illness and Laila is hiding her relationship with Khanum from her mother and a sexual liaison with a male friend from Khanum.

Physical disability is one of the many topics on which I’m not qualified to speak on. Luckily, Margarita with a Straw is a lot more informed about the topic than I am. Director Shonali Bose has close experience with cerebral palsy in particular. While she couldn’t find actresses who had cerebral palsy or visual impairment, she seems to have made a genuine attempt. Bose did hire a lot of consultants with physical disability to work with her and the actors on this film. This is not a case of a filmmaker ignoring lived experiences or realities by any means.

Bose’s interest in telling a realistic, human portrait of characters with disability is one of the best parts of the film. Many films about disability are about how difficult and sad this character’s life is. That’s not what Margarita With a Straw is. Instead, it’s about a character with a disability experiencing a normal life. Laila has hobbies she enjoys, a supportive family and opportunities for romance. The film never asks you to pity her. It’s such a low bar to say this is a good depiction of disability because it’s not all doom and gloom but there we are. The movie generally depicts the most difficult issue with physical disability to be accessibility, not the condition itself.

Laila is a character with multiple marginalized identities. She’s bisexual, disabled and an Indian woman who lives in New York. It would be easy for this movie to not develop this character beyond these aspects. Yet Margarita with a Straw doesn’t take the easy way here. It doesn’t try and make Laila the representative of all disabled queer women or anything. They individualize her. Laila has interests and a personality and shit.

I read another review saying if Margarita With a Straw was a major studio release, Kalki Koechlin would’ve received Oscar attention the same way Eddie Redmayne did for The Theory of Everything. I completely agree. Koechlin gives an excellent performance. She trained for months to accurately portray someone with cerebral palsy. The final product is an incredibly brilliant performance. In addition to the physical aspect, Koechlin still performs the emotional aspect. She’s a great actress who does incredible things with this role.

I adored the romance in Margarita with a Straw. I had low expectations for the romantic scenes but once again, this movie knocked it out of the park. Laila and Khanum’s early interactions are peak romantic. There’s a frisson of electricity when Khanum takes Laila’s hand to feel a piece of artwork, for example. This chemistry follows them through the movie. The end result is a charming romance that you can really root for. Laila and Khanum’s relationship is sweet, romantic or sexy depending on the need of the scene but always wonderful to watch.

Laila and Khanum’s relationship ends on a bit of an ambiguous note. I actually thought they broke up but online summaries of the movie tell me they reconcile. I’m going to go with that second option because it makes me happier. I love them as a couple. Margarita With a Straw is a movie where the focus isn’t so much romance as Laila’s self discovery. That’s good and all but usually movies like this don’t let the lead character keep their romantic partner. Especially in queer movies, that kind of bums me out. I’m pleased that Margarita with a Straw decided you can self-actualize and love yourself but get the girl too. It’s just that getting the girl isn’t the focus.

Margarita with a Straw is a great movie with a completely unique protagonist. It’s incredibly good at bringing the audience into Laila’s world. I hope that this movie sparks more films about characters who exist on the intersection between queerness and disability. These are the kind of movies we need more of. We don’t need yet another queer movie about two hot white people falling in love but feeling bad about it.

Overall rating: 8.7/10

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