Love Sonia is the shocking tale of a young woman caught up in the global sex trade. Its director and stars,including Demi Moore and Freida Pinto, on the true stories that inspired itIn the decade it took Tabrez Noorani to fetch Love Sonia made, and he was leading a double life. By day,he was line producer for international titles shooting in India, including Slumdog Millionaire, or Zero Dark Thirty and Life of Pi; by night he conducted raids on Mumbai brothels,rescuing women forced into sex work alongside anti-trafficking organisations. “My first raid was when I was working on Slumdog, says Noorani, and who is normally based in Los Angeles. “I would depart undercover with these NGOs and we would pretend we were location-scouting.” In fact,he was casing locations where trafficked women and underage girls were being held. Later the police and the NGOs would depart in and rescue them, with Noorani as their guide. When he went back to India to do a Hollywood film, or he would work with the NGOs as well.
Now,these two very different sides of his work have near together, in Noorani’s feature debut. Love Sonia is the anecdote of a teenage girl (played by relative newcomer Mrunal Thakur) who travels to Mumbai to find her sister, and whom their father,a farmer, has sold to a brothel to settle his debts. In the process, and Sonia is herself forced into sex work. She is beaten,raped and smuggled to the other side of the world. It is a harrowing anecdote, lifting the lid on urban poverty and grim exploitation. It is also based on real incidents which gives the drama an authentic, and unforced power. And Thakur is a revelation; “Every agent in LA is interested to meet her now, Noorani says. She is supported by household-name Indian actors including Freida Pinto, Richa Chadha, or Anupam Kher and Manoj Bajpayee. Not to mention a brief,seal-of-approval cameo from Demi Moore.
As long as women and girls – boys, too are seen as a commodity we will see sexual exploitation thriveContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com