Love Sonia is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language drama film directed by Tabrez Noorani and produced by David Womark. The film features newcomer Mrunal Thakur as the title character along with Riya Sisodiya, Freida Pinto, Demi Moore, Manoj Bajpayee, Richa Chadda, Anupam Kher, Adil Hussain, Rajkummar Rao, and Sai Tamhankar. Love Sonia had its world premiere at the London Indian Film Festival on 21 June 2018. The film was released in India on 14 September 2018 and theatrically in the UK on 25 January 2019.
Contents
Synopsis
The film is about two sisters robbed of their innocence when one is sold by her debt-ridden father, and the other follows after her in the hope of rescuing her but becomes trapped in the sex trade herself. While on a troublesome and challenging journey that takes us through the red-light districts of Mumbai, the latent innocence in the younger sister and the grit to rescue her sister and eventually herself stays intact.
Plot
Preeti and Sonia are the daughters of a poor debt-ridden farmer, Shiva, who lives approximately 1400 kms from Mumbai. The sisters love each other deeply and are willing to go to any length to protect each other. A village boy named Amar is deeply in love with Sonia. Amar helps the sisters create their individual email accounts to stay in touch with each other.
Shiva, who is indebted to the local landlord Dada Thakur, agrees to sell Preeti to a prostitute Anjali, to pay off his debt. Sonia desperately attempts to save Preeti from being sold but fails. That night, she mercifully requests Dada Thakur to send her to Mumbai, to meet Preeti. Subsequently, Anjali whisks away Sonia to Mumbai under the pretext of reuniting her with Preeti. Anjali sells her in a brothel owned by Faizal a.k.a. Babu and controlled by the brothel madame Madhuri.
Sonia is terribly scared and traumatized by the atmosphere of the brothel. Another prostitute Rashmi befriends her. While trying to escape from the brothel Sonia is caught by Faizal who threatens to kill her if she tries to run away again. After multiple pleas, Faizal agrees to let Sonia meet Preeti, who has become a drug-addict and a high profile prostitute. Preeti angrily reprimands Sonia for letting their dad sell her and throws her away and she was jealous of her. Meanwhile, Shiva begs Dada Thakur to return Sonia to him. Anjali provides Shiva the address to Kamathipura and directs him to Mumbai. Shiva frantically searches for Sonia in all the red-light areas of Mumbai. Meanwhile, a social worker named Manish approaches Sonia and extracts details about Preeti from her. He raids Faizal's brothel to rescue Sonia and another pre-teen named Asha. However, Sonia refuses to leave.
Rashmi severs ties with Sonia when she accuses her of stealing Preeti's anklet, the only souvenir of Preeti left with Sonia. Faizal ships off Madhuri, Sonia and several other girls to Hong Kong in a cargo container. Madhuri, who till that time was hostile towards Sonia, starts looking after her affectionately. Sonia ends up getting raped by an American customer. She forcefully undergoes a hymen reconstruction surgery to appear a virgin. The girls are again shipped to Los Angeles, where a relatively friendly client allows Sonia to get in touch with Amar via email. He also gifts her a mobile phone. At a party, Madhuri commits suicide by slitting her wrist.
Sonia runs away from her handlers, deep into the forests. A destitute Sonia, while trying to eat from a dustbin, is rescued by a social worker Salma who runs a NGO named C.A.S.T. Sonia finally finds peace of mind in the shelter home along with several other rescued girls and women. One day, Salma and Manish surprise her by reconnecting her with Preeti over a video call. Preeti tearfully asks for forgiveness and requests her to return. Six months later, Sonia returns to Manish's shelter home where she shockingly finds out that Preeti has gone back to prostitution due to her drug addiction.
Cast
Mrunal Thakur as Sonia Singhania
Richa Chadda as Madhuri
Anupam Kher as Baldev Singh/Dada Thakur
Adil Hussain as Shiva Singhania; Sonia and Preeti’s father
Rajkummar Rao as Manish
Sai Tamhankar as Anjali
Mark Duplass as an American expatriate
Demi Moore as Selma
Manoj Bajpayee as Faizal/Babu
Freida Pinto as Rashmi
Riya Sisodiya as Preeti Singhania
Abhishek Bharate as Amar Kumar; Sonia’s love interest
Ankur Vikal as hotel manager
Sunny Pawar as Bang Bang
Kiran Khoje as Sonia and Preeti’s mother
Barbie Rajput as Asha
Aarti Mann as Jiah
Abhinav Gupta as Bunty Bhai
Nikhil Raj as Jeetu
Production
Development
Tabrez Noorani was inspired to make Love Sonia after he was introduced to the severity of human trafficking in Los Angeles in 2003, when some girls were found in a shipping container from China. One of them was a young Indian girl. The incident inspired Noorani to work with non-governmental organizations focused on trafficking in Los Angeles. He has also participated in several brothel raids. Noorani and Womark met on Ang Lee's Life of Pi and have been working on the project for three years. This film basically revolves around a scenario that depicts the human trafficking of girls in & from the red-light areas of Mumbai on a large scale.
Casting
Mrunal Thakur was cast in the title role after a year long search from over 2,500 girls.
Filming
The principal photography started in late April 2016 in India. The project was also filmed in Hong Kong and Los Angeles.
