Cast: Riya Vij, Divya Dutta and Taaha Shah

Director: Sonam Nair

Rating: 3.5/5

'Gippi' is a winner!!!!

Movies, keeping in mind the 'teenage girls' segment have never been made before in Bollywood, but Sonam Nair fills that void as she presents 'Gippi'. Karan Johar has been churning a lot of new talent and for the first time the producer has worked with a woman director, who has not only written the story, but has also scripted the screenplay for the film.

Gurpreet Kaur, who is fondly known as 'Gippi' (Riya Vij) is a 14-year old girl, who is overweight and is dealing with the physical and emotional stress that accompanies every growing teenage girl. 'Gippi' lives in Simla with her mother Pappi (Divya Dutta) and younger brother Booboo (Arbaz Kadwani). Her parents are divorced and dad (Pankaj Dheer) lives in Delhi.

Anyway, going back to school after the summer break is always tough, especially if you have outgrown your uniform. Things don't get any easier for 'Gippi' as 'mean girl' Shamira Chauhan (Jayati Modi) takes pleasure in making 'Gippi' feel like a complete 'loser'. Thankfully, 'Gippi' has some support as her good friend Anchal (Doorva Tripathi) and her admirer Ashish (Aditya Deshpande) are always by her side.

Life takes a beautiful turn for 'Gippi' when she meets Arjun (Taaha Shah) at her dad's engagement party. Arjun is a high school kid at St. Mary's school, where 'Gippi' is a student as well. She falls in love with Arjun and is happy to flaunt her so-called 'boyfriend' to her rival Shamira and even tags him along to a party with his entourage Jai and Veer. However, 'Gippi's relationship is just a 'fantasy' and she is completely heartbroken as her 'first love' dreams get crushed.

In an ego spat with Shamira, 'Gippi' ends up taking on the challenge of contesting in the 'head girl' elections.

Sonam Nair, who has assisted one of the finest talents in the industry, Vishal Bhardwaj, makes one of the most impressive directorial debuts; she is a great storyteller. The director is inspired by Hollywood blockbuster 'Mean Girls' as there are a few scenes that are quite similar to the Western original, but Sonam smartly adapts them for the Indian audiences. Making movies with so many newcomers is not an easy task and Sonam does a brilliant job as she makes them all perform like stars.

'Gippi's music by Vishal Shekhar is awesome. 'Pehn di takki' is a dance track that will be very popular amongst the party crowd. Sukhwinder Singh croons 'Baby se baby doll' and the song is well placed in the movie as 'Gippi' is shown working on a plan to become the 'head girl'.

Riya Vij is a complete natural; she knows her craft and is very confident at it and she enacts her character beautifully. Divya Dutta as a mom is brilliant; she displays the right kind of emotions especially, in the scenes when she is attending her ex-husband's wedding reception. Arbaz is good as a caring younger brother. Doorva as a friend is great. Taaha looks great and plays the 'dude' character to perfection. Jayati is brilliant as the snooty girl in school, who thinks she is the best. Pankaj Dheer has limited scope, but he is good.

'Gippi' has some great moments when the family goes crazy dancing on 'Shammi Kapoor's songs and also when they forget their worries while enjoying the perfect chocolate cake.

'Gippi' is targeted towards teenagers and with the summer vacations in session, the movie is bound to do good at the box office.