‘Skater Girl’ Review: A Real-Life Skatepark in Rajasthan Grinds Out an Uplifting Drama

“Skater Girl” director Manjari Makijany intentionally built a set that would live after she called cut: the first skatepark in Rajasthan, India, where rural children can find freedom and confidence on four wheels, and even mingle beyond their caste. Her gentle drama is a promotional piece for the project from need to execution to totally tubular climactic skateboarding championship, timed, of course, to coincide with the day her teenage heroine Prerna (Rachel Saanchita Gupta) is to be married.There will be no kick-flipping of clichés in Makijany’s script, co-written with her sister Vinati Makijany. What’s novel are simply her images of Prerna — whose name means “inspiration” — zipping through her village’s curved alleyways and dusty marketplace, and, in one scene, accidentally launching her board off an old temple and into a river. , which to Makijany could be the happy ending she wants.Prerna, modeled after several youngsters the Makijanys befriended in pre-production, ...