Sridevi and Madhuri Dixit defined homosexuality in the 90s.
As someone told me recently, the best definition of being queer is ‘when you can be your true self without conforming to society’s set moral values.’ A lot of 90s cinema saw women celebrating their bodies and their sexuality, without ever revealing their independence. Madhuri and Sridevi were the closest I saw to how desires were celebrated.
Sridevi mr india
I always get asked this question: ‘Is your next story a gay story?’ I think it’s an unfair and unimaginative question. It could be a cishet (cisgender heterosexual) love story and still be a gay film because I see life, desire and relationships outside of society’s binary choices.
The moment you try to put people in a box, you are doing injustice to them. The reductionist label undermines my other identities – I am also a Bengali filmmaker, a filmmaker based in Mumbai. I have made films nayanthara necklacewhich is about two women who connect with each other over many free afternoons and talk about their desire for the men in their lives. It is the politics of desire, whether it is homosexual or heterosexual, that interests me the most.
Konkona Sen and Tillotama Shome nayanthara necklace
The realities of a hyper-capitalist world
I hate the word ‘representation’ because it smacks of charity. It suggests that a few sporadic mentions in a largely straight world should be enough to acknowledge our existence. Today you see a lot of token gay characters in mainstream shows and movies. But in show after show, they either die at the end, or they kill people, or just become comical tropes. This has made us victims, villains, or clowns. It’s symptomatic of the fact that these filmmakers see us as ‘other’.
I remember watching a show last year that ended with a gay man killing his lover and then dying immediately after. The sensational ending was praised by critics. However, the audience got to know nothing about the couple – neither their pain, nor their loneliness, or even what motivated them to do it, except that ‘the world is cruel to them’. Gays were brought in just to fill a gap in the plot in a straightforward story.
Filmmaker Jaydeep Sarkar
Many people may feel that the issue of representation in these roles has been ticked, but who does this really help? It won’t help the gay person who is hoping to find the strength to come out.
What is missing in our show is gay joy. Humour and rebellion are such a big part of our history and our lives, and they rarely make it into our cinema. I think we need to tell lighter, more positive stories of gay love. That was the main reason I wanted to make something for gays. Rainbow Relationship (Amazon Prime Video). Predictably, one review of the show said it was ‘not deep enough… surely their lives can’t be that easy!’ I was astonished at how the critic couldn’t understand a gay life that wasn’t tragic. The review was a sweet victory for the work I set out to do: breaking the narrative of trauma around gay people.
I am really interested in how to sell lesbian stories. We live in a hyper-capitalist world and lesbian films will only be made if they find an audience. I wonder when an Indian trans actor will be honoured on a global platform, like Carla Sofia Gascon, who won the Best Actress award at Cannes. Emily Perez,
Carla Sofia Gascon Emily Perez
There is some great independent queer cinema being made, but when will mainstream Hindi cinema have its own queer cinema? KathalBacked by a big star like Mammootty – a film that takes you closer to the gay experience with empathy and grace. Or Super DeluxeIn which Vijay Sethupathi played the role of a trans woman. We urgently need this brainstorming, so that gay stories can be told with confidence and at par with other mainstream cinema, and tickets can be sold and conversations can be sparked in living rooms.
Vijay Sethupathi in Super Deluxe
We need more stories from small towns
When I’ve Rainbow RelationshipI was very clear that I wanted it to be diverse – not just in terms of orientation and gender, but also in terms of geography. So, I looked for stories in small towns. What I found was very ironic; small town India is far more progressive than metropolitan India.
I faced queerphobia in Bandra more than I did in Daniela Mendonca’s Bhayander. The suburb is full of small industries run from people’s homes. In an area where people lead tough lives, every little happiness is precious. So when Daniela, a transwoman, decided to marry Joel, a cishet man, the whole of Bhayander came out to celebrate. Morality remains a bane for the middle class.
Daniela Mendonca in a scene Rainbow Relationship
I have experienced this in my life too. I never allowed myself to dream In law’s houseJust like I saw in Sooraj Barjatya films as a child. But then I met my partner, and later his family who live in Jamshedpur. My mother-in-law is my role model. I have seen her enter rooms and break every prejudice with her confident support and love. I have seen people feel less bound by their prejudices when they meet someone as empathetic as her.
Are we on the right track?
Quantitatively, there are more gay characters on screen now. While they’re not being ridiculed, they’re definitely being patronised and stereotyped. We’re still nowhere close to where we need to be. However, I think this is all a continuum, and we’re moving in the right direction.
The campy movies have been made, the traumatic storylines have been made, now gay pleasure should come. We need to be more irreverent, fearless and brazen to make gay cinema that will have an impact.
The author is a Mumbai-based filmmaker.
as told Surya Prafull Kumar
