Love Sonia Movie Review: Hope is the new beginning in Soniya’s Journey!

Love Sonia

Starring: Mrunal Thakur,Riya Sisodiya, Richa Chadha, Freida Pinto, Anupam  Kher, Manoj Bajpai, Rajkummar Rao

Directed by: Tabrez Noorani

Rating:**(2.5 stars)

Love Sonia tells the heartfelt and brave story of Sonia played by (Mrunal Thakur), a young Indian Village girl whose life irrevocably changes when she is entrapped into the vicious global sex trade network.

“Love Soniya” is a story of two sisters in an Indian village one of  whom Preeti (Riya Sisodia) is sold off to ease her  debt-ridden farmer-father(Adil Hussain)’s burden . As Sonia (Mrunal Thakur) follows her sister into the evil world of pimps, prostitution.It is amicable drama about human trafficking and  child prostitution,  At times the  language of  violence used in the film is as violent as the situation that it (the language )is meant to condemn. The bigger problem is the film’s inability to differentiate between condemning and unintentionally celebrating sexual violence.

Its inability to differentiate between condemning and unintentionally celebrating sexual violence.

It is caught in the middle between brutal and beautiful achieving neither extremity in spite of some terrific camerawork. The narration is rage & breathless. Vigorous performance played by newcomer Mrunal Thakur, Richa Chadha, Freida Pinto Manoj Bajpai and Sai Tamhakar cannot redeem this grey drama from drowning.

Because the sadism seems to be distressing and unjustified, leading us  into believing that in some cases, cinema about sexual violence gets so close to  its subject that it loses its dispassion and ends  up celebrating rather than refusing  the violence.

Overall the vigorous performance by the stars makes it worth watching.