Love Sonia movie review: Richa Chadha, Freida Pinto, Rajkummar Rao and Manoj Bajpayee's film fails to engage audiences

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Cast: Mrunal Thakur,Riya Sisodiya,Richa Chadha,Freida Pinto,Rajkummar Rao,Manoj Bajpayee,Anupam Kher,Adil Hussain
Direction: Tabrez Noorani
Genre: Drama
In a scene, we find the film’s eponymous lead scampering through one of the serpentine lanes of Mumbai’s infamous red-light districts. Like many, she has been tricked into the trade and her desperate sprint is an attempt to flee the notorious profession. Out of wind, she halts to catch her breath, when a young boy at a fruit cart locks eyes with her. The boy offers her a mango and enquires about her panic-stricken state. She begins to tell him but her voice trails away. Regardless, the intuitive boy sparks up and begins singing the phrase “thokam thoki!” while gesticulating by merrily thumping the side of his fist to his palm. A concern with Love Sonia is this deliberate treatment that leaves little to the imagination.

Attempting to relay the sufferings of those who have been trafficked in the flesh trade, this one follows the life of Sonia (Mrunal Thakur) whose sister Preeti (Riya Sisodiya) gets trafficked by the village stronghold Dada Thakur (Anupam Kher) as her farmer dad (Adil Hussain) couldn’t repay his debts. In search of her sister, Sonia gets herself mangled in the notorious world and is forced to resign to her inevitable doom. The nexus between pimps and the police, the sex workers who’ve accepted their fate and the customers who couldn’t care less—further punctuate Sonia’s miseries. The teen finds a counsellor in Madhuri (Richa Chadha), a sex worker who conceals her health issues, while Rashmi (Freida Pinto), another streetwalker who perennially delves in her own painful past—she even pulls up her blouse in a scene to reveal the scars on her back.

The film labours to detail the equity attached to virgins. In a scene, we see Faizal (Manoj Bajpayee), a brothel-keeper, scream into his phone to say, “Yes, yes virgin girl, village girl,” to convey this particular demand. But this clearly wasn’t enough. So when Sonia is sent to Hong Kong in a shipping container, it isn’t just for a ‘job’. She also finds herself in a dodgy warehouse, where behind white curtains, a team of doctors perform a certain surgery on her. “Make her a virgin again,” we hear someone say, while another wearing a surgical mask begins drawing 8s in the air with a needle and thread.

Thakur is a promising find and immerses herself completely in her character’s circumstances. Even while some of the engineered situations seem rather exaggerated, the actor is committed and ensures the proceedings flow seamlessly. Chadha, for the large part, retains the reserve of a seasoned actor, but the scene where her Madhuri slashes her wrist could’ve been a little less theatrical. Pinto is loud and seems desperate to make her character memorable — something she eventually manages, even at the risk of hamming her way to glory. Bajpayee’s Faizal conjures the necessary intimidation and scorn required for the character, while Rajkummar Rao’s two-bit role is insignificant enough to be essayed by any other actor.

In his directorial debut, Tabrez Noorani is so consumed in narrating the dangerous reality of survivors of sex trafficking that he ignores the fact that he has to also engage audiences with his characters — for them to actually feel their plight. For instance, even in her multiple attempts to escape the world she’s dragged into, the warranted tension and concern one has for the lead here is faint. In many ways, it’s just not possible to feel much for this Sonia.

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