Movie Review: Love Sonia
3.5/5
It's a sad reality that sometimes, burdened by circumstances, parents do horrible things to their children. Love Sonia starts with a poor farmer (Adil Hussain), who seeing no way out, decides to sell his elder daughter Preeti (Riya Sisodiya), to Dada Thakur (Anupam Kher), the moneylender he owes money to. Anjali (Sai Tamhankar) is a middle-woman for a Mumbai based pimp Faisal (Manoj Bajpayee) and sells her to him. Sonia (Mrunal Thakur) can't live without her sister and runs away to find her. She meets different characters on the way. Madhuri (Richa Chadha), who helps Faisal run the brothel, had been a victim of rape before she was sold as a prostitute. She has hardened her heart, living in denial about her circumstances, turning into an oppressor herself over the years. Rashmi (Freida Pinto), was sold by her husband into the brothel and has lost her ability to empathise, living on the borders of her own make believe world as everyone she knows has shunned her. Manish (Rajkummar Rao), is part of an NGO which rescues underdage girls from brothels and tries to help Sonia. Finally, in America, she meets Selma (Demi Moore), who runs an organisation which helps victims of sexual abuse rehabilitate their lives.
The film, written by Ted Caplan and Alkesh Vaja, doesn't spare us the punches but continues to hit the viewer in the guts from the word go. Sonia is made to perform oral sex for clients because Faisal wants to sell her as a virgin to an international cartel. She's anally raped by a stranger when he wants to teach her a lesson and break her spirit. The girls spend days cooped up in a container, first smuggled off to Hong Kong and from there to USA. The most hard-hitting scene occurs when Manish is on the verge of rescuing her but Sonia chooses to stay back in the hell as she won't leave without her sister.
The story is buoyed by life-like performances from everyone. Anupam Kher, in a cameo as a man who makes profit out from the miseries of other people leaves an impact and so does Sai Tamhankar, an agent who doesn't feel shy about duping impressionable girls and selling them off. Freida Pinto sparkles as the almost loony prostitute who is so far gone down the road that she doesn't care about coming back. You love and hate Richa Chadda in equal measure because despite being a victim herself, she doesn't break the chain but bullies innocent girls into submission. Manoj Bajpayee, in one of the blackest roles of his career, shines as the loathsome pimp Faisal who remains immune to the suffering around him. Riya Sisodiya too makes her mark as Preeti. Mrunal Thakur is the find of the film. The debutant is a natural in front of the camera. Such is her ease that you believe you're watching an actual person's life unfold than watching a performance. It takes huge amounts of courage to begin your career with such a difficult film and let's hope Mrunal continues to shine in the years to come.
Tabrez Noorani is known for his work as a line producer for Hollywood films set in India for a long time. Love Sonia marks his debut as a director and he too has made an impressive beginning. It's a well written, well crafted product bringing to light a problem the general public tends to ignore. The film just doesn't raise the questions but offers some answers as well, ultimately stating that one should keep on fighting for one's survival even in the face of the most adverse of circumstances...
