heartbroken when she is rejected. Moving on from the experience, Laila is overjoyed to receive a scholarship for a semester's study at New York University. Despite her father's reservations, she moves to Greenwich Village, Manhattan with her orthodox Maharashtrian mother Shubhangini Damle. Laila meets an attractive young man named Jared, who is assigned to help her in the creative writing class. She also meets a young activist, Khanum, a blind girl of Pakistani-Bangladeshi descent, with whom she falls in love. Laila is enamoured by Khanum's fiercely independent personality and her positive perspective towards her own disability. The two spend most of their time together, filling in as each other's caregivers. Laila becomes confused about her sexual orientation, as she is attracted to men (Jared in particular) while being in a serious relationship with Khanum. She has sex with Jared, only to regret it immediately. Laila does not tell Khanum about this encounter. Oblivious to her daughter's relationship with Khanum, Laila's mother invites Khanum to Delhi to spend the winter vacation with Laila's family. Laila ultimately finds the courage to come out to her mother about bisexuality and her relationship with Khanum, both of which her mother strongly disapproves. Laila also confesses to Khanum that she had sex with Jared and asks for her forgiveness. Feeling betrayed by Laila, Khanum breaks up with her and leaves for New York. Shubhangini is diagnosed with advanced colon cancer which has relapsed after previous treatments. Laila and her mother move past their differences while Laila tends to her at the hospital. The two eventually reconcile shortly before Shubhangini's death. Laila plays a song (recorded by Shubhangini) at Shubhangini's funeral telling how much she loved her and how she was the only one who ever understood her. Laila is later seen drinking a margarita with a straw. Cast Credits adapted from Rotten Tomatoes. Production Development Shonali Bose began working on a story in January 2011, on what would have been her son's 17th birthday (he had died the year previously). She worked on the first draft extensively for about a month. Although the main character of Laila is based on her cousin Malini Chib, a disability rights activist, the narrative follows Bose's own experience of losing a family member. She acknowledged the difficulty of incorporating elements from her personal life into the story, calling it a "tough emotional journey". The idea of working on a