Afilm which aims to look at the life of a woman wheelchair user with cerebral palsy gets its UK premiere this week.

Margarita With a Straw has already received rave reviews at the Toronto International Film Festival.

It tells the story of Laila (Kalki Koechelin) a student at Delhi University, an aspiring writer who composes lyrics and creates electronic sounds for an indie band.

She gets admitted to New York University, and moves with her mother (Revathy). Living in Manhattan, she falls in love with a fiery young activist, Khanum (Sayani Gupta). Thus she embarks on a journey of sexual discovery which hinders the relationships between her family and friends.

Produced by Viacom18 Motion Pictures, Jakhotia Group, Ishan Talkies and ADAPT, the film will be screened today and tomorrow at Vue West End Cinema and Vue Cinema Islington in London.

The film not only received a standing ovation at its world premiere but also won the prestigious NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) award for Best Asian Film at the 39th Toronto International Film Festival.

It is directed by Bengali film-maker Shonali Bose, whose award-winning film Amu previously explored the suppressed history of the genocidal attacks on Sikhs in Delhi in 1984.

She said: “I was sitting in a cafe in London with my 39-year-old cousin, Malini, discussing her upcoming 40th birthday.

“Malini waved her arms in the air and then brought her fist down with a crash on the table.

“I HAVE to have sex before I am 40!”

“Her voice was not only audible, startling sedate Londoners having tea in a proper restaurant, but her speech was understandable – which is rare.

“Malini was born with acute cerebral palsy.

“She was a year younger than me. More beautiful, more romantic and more obsessed with boys.

“I spent my teenage years feeling guilty that the boys would only want to date me and not her.

“But then I got married and moved to the US and had children and forgot about Malini’s sexuality until that moment in the London teashop when I realised that this had been a driving need her whole life, which had been suppressed by society and by her family and me. What had I done to enable her to explore her sexuality?”

“As it grew inside me it took on other shapes and more complex issues – about loving and accepting your body and yourself. About being in your own skin, being authentic. Being unafraid of being rejected – in one’s work as well as personally. Being filled with self-worth and self-esteem.

“This is an intensely personal film dealing with a subject that hardly any films have touched on – sexuality and disability. And yet it is a very universal film. The protagonist and her journey are highly identifiable.”