5 Style Lessons from Margarita with a Straw

A rebellious young woman with cerebral palsy leaves India to study in New York. On her journey of self-discovery, she unexpectedly falls in love.

Margarita with a Straw is the kind of film that happens to us only once in a while. It has got all the right ingredients in right amounts at right places. Even though it deals with physical challenges faced by most of its main characters, not once it gets overboard with sentiments, and never ever gets preachy. That’s a maturity of film-making which is difficult if not rare to find in our Hindi film industry. Dealing with such sensitive struggles of life, while exhibiting a sense of complete normalcy (whatever that means!), has made this one such a special watch that it’s so tempting to be a part of its character’s lives.

Laila, played by Kalki Koechlin

There are very few yet very neatly crafted characters in this tightly-knit feature by Shonali Bose. Kudos to the casting team (Anmol Ahuja, Nilesh Maniyar, Adrienne Stern) for doing such a fabulous job of casting! Kalki Koechlin is absolutely stunning in her bisexual character Laila, suffering from Cerebral Palsy. And so is the acting power-house Revathy rendering the difficult role of Shubhangini– Laila’s gritty mother, care-taker and dealing with her own demons at the same time. Sayani Gupta, playing Laila’s blind lesbian lover –Khanum, is simply gorgeous.

Amazing depiction of Mother-Daughter relationship

So why are we talking about such difficult movie based on the everyday struggles of various kinds of physical disability, on a fashion and lifestyle blog? That’s where the movie seals the deal for the Fashion Keeda inside me. The real beauty of this little gem lies in the beauty and fashion-sense of Laila and Khanum, especially Khanum for rocking the desi-chic in New York, despite all the hardships they go through even doing the smallest of the everyday tasks like brushing the teeth.

Laila playing DJ

Laila and Khanum, these two lovers refuse to accept the physical disability as their destiny to lead a boring life feeling sorry and blaming the universe for the raw deal they have been dealt with. Instead they are vivacious, intelligent, artistic, studious, adventurous, stylish, fashionable, and beautiful and pretty much anything and everything any of us could be. They are us. That’s what Margarita with a Straw sets out to convey, and convey it does.

Here are the lessons we can learn from Margarita with a Straw to lead a stylish life, no matter what:

1. It’s all about the attitude. Always

Laila and Khanum

It’s never about the looks or appearance, it’s always about the attitude. Period.

2. Wear whatever the heck you want to. Don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise.

Laila in Tangerine

Wear red, stripes, pajamas, tangerine, sweat-shirts, basically anything that you want to. Nobody, remember nobody, has any business telling you what to wear and what not to. Body types, sizes, complexions, matching etc are just marketing gimmicks to sell you something they make in a factory. You’re one of your own kind.

3. Accessorize. Accessorize. Accessorize.

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Khanum has a thing for brilliant accessories

Accessories can add personality to any look. Sometimes, accessories are the looks. Khanum completely rocks it with her accessories be it the colorful bandana, over-sized rings, quirky peacock feather ear-rings, shades (yeah, she is blind, so?), cutesy hair-pins etc. Her options are limitless and so are yours.

4. Go easy on yourself and others too.

Laila is comfortable in her own skin

Everybody has a finite wardrobe and people do repeat, mix and match their clothes unlike what popular media suggests otherwise. People in Laila’s world repeat their clothes like we do in real life.

5. Do not discriminate and do not let others do it to you.

Laila and Khanum treat each other just like people, nothing more, nothing less

Style doesn’t discriminate. Beauty doesn’t discriminate. Fashion doesn’t discriminate. It’s people, who discriminate each other. Everybody is stylish, beautiful, fashionable and artistic in their own unique way. Caste, class, color, race, gender, ethnicity, religion, physical features like size, age, body type (really what is that? Pear, Apple? What nonsense!!) etc. have got nothing to do with this. Laila, Khanum, Shubhangini and even Laila’s childhood friend Dhruv, played by the ever-charming Hussain Dalal, keep going on to show this to us again and again.