‘Skater Girl’ Movie Review: Rural Indian Teenager Girl Takes Flight on a Board with Wheel

Rachel Saanchita Gupta's important performance as Prerna Bhil, in which she effortlessly slips into the role, helps the picture find its stride and reach a steady canter.

Published on:

12 Jun 2021, 8:37 am

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Cast: Rachel Saanchita Gupta, Amy Maghera, Jonathan Readwin, Ambrish Saxena, Swati Das, Vinayak Gupta

Director: Manjari Makijany
Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)

It's not often that a film sparks immediate collective action. Even rarer is a film's social impact before it has been seen by an audience. One such film is Skater Girl, which is available on Netflix. It has made a lasting impression on Khempur, which is hardly a spot on the map. The audience is told that a rural Rajasthan village 45 kilometres from Udaipur now has its own community skatepark where girls can go.

Skater Girl is a simple and touching sports film directed by debutante Manjari Makijany that zips along swiftly and avoids the tired cliches that Bollywood reserves for the underdog-against-all-odds genre. It's about a poor tribal teen (newcomer Rachel Saanchita Gupta) who discovers skateboarding and sets out on a quest for independence.

Prerna Bhil, the girl, has dropped out of school due to a lack of funds to purchase textbooks. Worse worse, her father is adamant about marrying her off. She is a victim of a strict and hierarchical culture. Skateboarding has the potential to set her free.

On her road to fulfilling her dream to compete in a national skateboarding event that might change her life forever, she must overcome poverty and patriarchy, overcome other societal difficulties, and traverse harsh caste barriers.

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Jessica, a 34-year-old Indian-British girl, introduces a new sport to the young boys and girls of Khempur, and they learn to express themselves through it (Amy Maghera). On a personal mission, the latter has arrived in the village. Soon after, Erick (Jonathan Readwin), a buddy from Los Angeles, arrives on a skateboard and creates a path for the kids.

Despite the continual support she receives from her spirited kid brother Ankush, Prerna's journey is not without obstacles (Shafin Patel). Her precarious situation, in which she is a bundle of worries, qualms, and uncertainties, illustrates the magnitude of the obstacles that a girl like her must overcome before she can even mount a skateboard, let alone take up the sport seriously.

The entire community is against the kids because, in their excitement over discovering a new sport, they not only skip school but also start causing minor disasters all throughout the village.

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"Everyone hates skateboards no matter where you go in the globe," Erick remarks. The Maharani (Waheeda Rehman) informs Jessica in another scene that her people are resistant to change. When things get out of hand, Erick and Jessica are forced to do the seemingly impossible: carve out a separate space for the aspiring, overly enthusiastic skateboarders.