Summaries

Synopsis

Skater Girl is a coming-of-age story about confidence, courage, and the profound impact of blazing your own trail.Set in a remote village of Khempur in Rajasthan, India, the film follows Prerna (Rachel Saanchita Gupta), a local teen living a life bound by tradition and duty to her parents. Prerna attends to household chores as her brother Ankush (Shafin Patel) attends the local Govt school. She doesn't attend school as she has no books or uniform.She sells peanuts to supplement the family income. Her mom Shanti (Swati Das) wants to take up stitching to help earn more money, but her dad refuses point blank as he thinks women are only fit for menial jobs.Mahesh (Anurag Arora) is the school headmaster.

London-bred advertising executive Jessica (Amy Maghera) arrives in the village to learn more about her late father's childhood. She stays at a local lodge run by Vikram (Ankit Rao).Prerna meets Jessica when Ankush was fighting and accidentally flung some dung at Jessica. Prerna helps wash her clothes. Jessica learns that Prerna doesn't go to school, and the bro-sis duo have a homemade skateboard which they ride daily.Jessica learns more about Prerna and buys her a new school uniform, so she can attend school. Jessica posts the video of the handmade skateboard on her friends chat group and gets many instant reactions.

Soon enough, Prerna and the other local children are introduced to an exciting new adventure thanks to Jessica and her old friend Erick (Jonathan Readwin) who cruises into town on a skateboard. After some encouragement Erick tutors Prerna on how to ride the skateboard. The kids beg Erick to stay around longer to teach them properly.Prerna uses the school computer to watch skating videos online. She was practicing near the village pond and drops the board in the water, which destroys it. She offers to pay Erick with money that she stole from her father, but Erick refuses and says its OK.Meanwhile her dad catches her when she was putting the money back and slaps her for stealing from her own home.Jessica buys new skateboards for all the kids and one specifically for Prerna.

The kids become infatuated with the sport, skating through the village, disrupting everything and everyone around them. They crash into everyone in the village as they learn to control their boards.Kids start skipping school to practice skating. Mahesh notices this and takes the matter to the Panchayat. The Sarpanchs impose a fine of Rs 500 for skating. Meanwhile Jessica is getting pressure from her boss to get back to her job in London. Kids are arrested by the local cop (Sahidur Rahaman) for violating the law and are only released when Jessica promises that the kids will not miss school going forward.The main objection of the villagers is the kids from untouchable castes are playing in the streets, where they have no business.

Determined to empower and encourage their newfound passion, Jessica sets out on an uphill battle to build the kids their own skate-park. Erick goes to Bangalore to assemble his team. Jessica tries to get funding from the local MLA and sports body but gets no help as there is nothing in it for them. Vikram takes her to Maharani (Waheeda Rehman). Jessica narrates the story of Prerna, who has no dreams and no aspirations as she has never been taught to dream. Maharani is moved by the story and cautions Jessica that change is a dangerous thing in India, when led by a woman. She agrees to fund the entire project.Erick's team and Maharani's funding means that the skate-park is ready quickly.

The MLA announces a national skating championship to link his name to the project. The competition is in 3 months. The experts from Bangalore teach a few tricks to the kids. Prerna practices day and night and even gets injured in the process. Prerna's dad Ramkesh (Ambrish Saxena) confronts Jessica and tells her to stay away from his kids as he is afraid that if Prerna gets a serious injury, nobody will marry her. But Shanti figures that Prerna is really passionate about skating and takes her back to Jessica. She continues to practice but hides it from her dad.

A boy from upper caste, who studies with Prerna at school, develops feelings for her and asks her out. But Ramkesh finds out that she visited the local fair with the upper caste Brahman boy. He confronts Prerna. He burns her skateboard. Its one week before the competition and Prerna is distraught.Ramkesh fixes her marriage, and the wedding is scheduled in 1 week, on the day of the competition.Prerna is left with a difficult choice between conforming to society's expectations of her or living out her dream of competing in the National Skateboarding Championships. On the day of the wedding, Prerna tells Ankush that she wants to skate one last time. Ankush helps Prerna to run away from the wedding venue to the skating rink, where the championship is taking place. He even gives her his own skateboard, so she can compete.Prerna climbs out of the roof to escape. When the wedding party arrives, Shanti figures out that Prerna has escaped.

Maharani was on the way to the venue in her car and finds Prerna skating towards it. She gives Prerna a lift. Her parents also reach there but decide not create a ruckus in public. Prerna performs in the championship. Maharani recognizes Prerna's courage and gives her a special award in front of the entire audience, including her parents.Khempur is India's largest skate-park.