Boli...beyond words

Synopsis:
A young small-town girl moves from Uttar Pradesh to Bengaluru on work in an IT firm,
but is upset and faces inner humiliation because she cannot speak English like her colleagues.
She is frequently trying to learn English speaking on YouTube videos. She picks up a job with a
hearing-impaired school. Here she blossoms, and loses all her previous self-consciousness about
her Hindi-accented English, about her lack of articulate English. In the end scene, a deaf stu-
dent signs to her: I wish I could speak like you. She signs back: If we all spoke the same way, the
world would be a boring place.
Theme: Emotions are prelingual. The universality of brotherhood comes through whatever lan-
guage we speak in, indeed whether we speak at all.
It is a touching and moving story, almost spiritual in its end message about transcending the polarity
of languages.
Uniqueness of theme: This is a human theme and goes beyond and above the simply said story. This
is a human struggle, that we may at some point in our life be ashamed of the way we speak, what-
ever lingo that may be. Because the way we speak reveals our origin, where we come from, but it
also simultaneously reveals where we belong, who we are, our roots.
That communication is a human need, and a need that fulfills itself in one way or another is the
beauty of communication.
Characters:
The central character is Leela, played by actress/model Nimisha Dean, who has moved
from a small town in North India to the big, happening, bustling city of Bengaluru. Many
adjustments have to be made by her to fit in, including the way she speaks.