‘Bad Girl’ movie review: Finally, a Tamil urban coming-of-age drama told through the lens of a woman

If movie reviews were instruction manuals, I’d command you to take a pause and give the film Bad Girl by debutant director Varsha Bharath some hours of your time.

This refreshing coming-of-age Tamil film centred around Ramya (played by Anjali Sivaraman) sets out to achieve exactly what the director promises in her pre-release interviews (a rarity in Tamil cinema these days). It merely tells the tale of a young urban woman figuring her way out in life — and how.

If one was to be reductive, a quick comparison from the same industry would label Bad Girl as Varsha’s Autograph (the 2004 film by Cheran). But we do not do that here.

Ramya’s transition from her pimple-filled, Orkut-testimonial-ridden, Sun Music adolescence; to her toxic college romance; smooths out in the meditation over the end of an important adult relationship. Initially, the film seems to make these boyfriends out to be tropes. The school boyfriend (Hridhu Haroon) being innocent but not one who could stand up for their love; the college rockstar song-writing boyfriend (Sashank Bommireddipalli) who cheats; and the adult romance (Teejay Arunasalam) that seems like a forever but fails because of fights regarding mundanity like toilet seats. Yet, none of the tropes allow for characters to seem uni-dimensional. Every romance elicits a reaction and every boyfriend, a tale of growth.

In the film where the ‘problem child’ narrative features prominently, Ramya rebels against the world through her choices — ones that invite the ire of her parents, especially when she is caught spending a whole night with her boyfriend during a school excursion. She is also a cause of concern to her friends when she gets drunk and confronts her two-timing college boyfriend in front of a graduating class.

In all these large groups, Ramya who does not subscribe to the norm of ‘acting right’ — both by flouting rigid, regressive, disciplinarian rules in school; and confusing, and often hypocritical social norms in college — is perceived as a cautionary tale. It is only when she finds a nook of her own in a house with her cats and loving friends who stick around, that we find her taking a breath. Until then, her restlessness is palpable on screen. Through it all, though, one finds breaks from the restlessness through tender versions of the central character’s romances. Ramya is entirely honest in her romances — with her friends and even her mother. This is evidently her strength

Ramya’s complex relationship with her mother comes through beautifully in Bad Girl because it transcends the bounds of the screen. Shantipriya, who plays the mother, is a disciplinarian caught in the shackles of a patriarchal notion of what is right and wrong. In her pursuit to ensure that Ramya is ‘good’ and safe, her own merit as an uthami, someone who can do no wrong, is questioned. A voiceover, a device often employed to over-explain a plot, only furthers the emotion on screen. There is surely a moment where Ramya speaks of breaking the generational cycle of instilled misogyny where you will find yourself choked, quickly wiping a stray tear when nobody’s watching.

Ramya is battered and bruised by life, sometimes literally as she refuses to eat. But her pursuit is different. It is one that seeks the truth of her existence. “Am I the odd one? Am I a bad person? Am I the problem?” she asks repeatedly. Haven’t we asked ourselves the same question?

Mired in controversy even before its release for showing women drinking and smoking, Bad Girl will seem offensive to people who think of women as dolls and gods, and not people. The rest though is sure to have a good time, especially because you may come out of the theatre humming Amit Trivedi’s catchy “ooaa ooaa yeah” tune.

Anjali Sivaraman shines through the movie and the colours on screen pop.

‘Bad Girl’ is now running in theatres.