Upcoming Film ‘Love Sonia’ Deals With Matters That Matter The Most – Prostitution And Human Trafficking

A new Indian movie Love Sonia with the rarely addressed topic of human trafficking, is all set to release in the coming week. Here is what you can expect from the film. 

You must be sitting peacefully out there in your home, but the world is not all safe, secure and pious. Women and children are sold and left stranded in the world of sex work for the sake of money. Love Sonia, the directorial debut of Tabrez Noorani, is a story that revolves around the lives of two sisters struggling to find each other in the world of human trafficking and forced prostitution.

The recently released two minute trailer of Love Sonia gives us a peek into the heartbreaking tale of 17-year-old Sonia (played by newcomer Mrunal Thakur). Sonia, the movie’s protagonist, travels to Mumbai from her village to find her sister. During her quest, she lands up in the gloomy world of human trafficking and prostitution. In the trailer, we can see snippets of Sonia’s journey to various parts of the world including India, Hong Kong and Los Angles.

The scale of human trafficking globally, is massive. India, with its exponentially increasing population, is regarded as one of the main hubs of the trafficking trade, with trafficking occurring in many Indian states. Statistics released by the National Crime Records Bureau state that over 20,000 women and children were victims of trafficking in the year 2016. Most NGOs believe that this figure is just the tip of the iceberg. But these survey records give us a picture of the saddening condition of human trafficking in India. The reality of this is what Love Sonia is trying to portray.

The movie is inspired by true incidents. The trailer highlights a few of these and gives you severe chills while showing the misery of those in the flesh trade. Apart from that the movie also focuses on the bond between two sisters, with Mrunal Thakur and Riya Sisodiya acting as Sonia and Preeti respectively. The plot seems to revolve around how they are separated when their father sells Preeti off, maybe due to poverty. Sonia then goes in search of her but gets stuck in the world of sex trade. It is her determination to survive against all odds that hits you hard and leaves you convinced to watch the film when it hits the theatre next week.

The movie is meant to leave you with emotional turmoil and this is evident with the ensemble cast that it has – Richa Chadha, Frieda Pinto, Demi Moore, Anupam Kher, Manoj Bajpayee, Rajkummar Rao, Adil Hussain and Sai Tamhankar. The immensely talented Adil Hussain will be seen as the helpless father of Preeti and Sonia. Richa Chadha is cast a helpful and understanding sex worker who also struggles to set herself free. Anupam Kher is assumed to be the wealthy landlord who trades Preeti for money with her father and the very talented Rajkumar Rao is seen as a concerned activist.

On the whole, Love Sonia promises to compel audiences to think -by revealing the horrifying reality of women forced into sex work by trafficking. What will be interesting to watch is how it plays this issue against the backdrop of two sisters who deeply love one another.

Nishtha Pandey

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