Entertainment
Voices from the margins
The celluloid representation of the LGBT identity has most often raised voices demanding social acceptance, recognition and respect
Shoma A. Chatterji

kARAN jOHAR’S Dostana SATIRISED THE GAY ISSUE

Lesbian and gay relationships were considered a taboo in Indian cinema. This corresponded with the social rejection of such identities in real life. Times, however, have changed and slowly, as this discriminated community that is ostracised only for being ‘differently’ inclined in sexual terms, are coming out of their closets to raise their voices and demanding social acceptance, recognition and respect.

The Supreme Court’s ruling upholding Section 377 on December 11 last pushed them back to square one — they will again be considered criminals by the law that has no right to curb their personal preferences. It is strange that no one raises questions about the legality of a person’s choice of partner in heterosexual relationships but when it comes to sexual preference for another person of the same sex, the hammer comes down. Will the Supreme Court ruling out the high court’s positive ruling of 2009 have an impact on the celluloid representation of the LGBT (lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender) identity? The uproar in the media against the ruling both from mainstream and the LGBT communities suggests it will not.

Films portraying gay and lesbian relationships in Indian cinema are of two kinds. One represents the truly Indian film while the other comes from diaspora filmmakers. The message they carry is the same. Deepa Mehta’s Fire is said to be a path-breaking film that portrayed a lesbian relationship that evolves between two sisters-in-law within the same family united through marriage to two brothers of the family. Fire’s most compelling point is the manner in which it has become a public text, the subject of controversy in the media and the audience. It focuses on a nascent lesbian relationship in a film intended to reach a mainstream audience.

Onir’s My Brother Nikhil (2005) explores the collapsing world of a talented swimmer Nikhil, when he is diagnosed as HIV+ and is thrown out of his swimming group. His once-loving parents throw him out and the only solace he finds is in his elder sister and his male partner Nigel, who stand by him through his struggle to survive in an unfriendly and unsympathetic world. The social response of the audience was positive. Based on the real-life experiences of Dominic D’Souza who was a gay, Onir tackled homosexuality without treating it as an ugly joke, a dirty alliance or an aberration.

Kal Ho Na Ho takes rude potshots at homosexuality through the two male characters Shah Rukh Khan and Saif Ali Khan, two heterosexual men who keep teasing Sulabha Arya’s suspicions about their relationship. Karan Johar’s Dostana (2008) reinforces how mainstream cinema still satirises homosexuality even while appearing to bring it into the mainstream. The same Karan Johar in Ajeeb Dastaan Hai Yeh (2013) takes an empathetic view on alternative sexual preferences through a marriage that lacks sex without taking away the humane tragedy of a ‘normal’ woman, who finds her husband is gay.

Films that have got the thumbs up from gays and lesbians are Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd and Rules, Pyaar Ka Superhit Formula.

Nandita Das, one of the homosexual protagonists in Fire, feels that "misrepresentation or derogatory connotations to the characters by filmmakers can stigmatise the community and force them to remain closeted." Madhur Bhandarkar’s Fashion (2008) raised the hackles of several gay communities in the country for Bhandarkar’s ‘caricature and moralising’ of their way of life and sexual choices. Zoya Akhtar’s Sheela Ki Jawani is a moving comment on gender stereotyping within families where sons, even when are young are forced by fathers to act against their natural tendencies. The film is not about homosexuality but it is about a boy who is naturally inclined to dance like "Katrina Kaif" and is neither physically strong nor interested in football, which his father wants him to play.

Onir’s I Am (2011) weaves together four riveting short stories of people struggling with some inner conflict. One of these stories subtly focusses on gay rights through an extremely incisive and hard-hitting story of the torture of a gay person played brilliantly by Rahul Bose. The torture is brutally forthright and does not try to cushion the humiliation and insult and abuse of a young man solely because he is gay. The National Award the film fetched is, perhaps, an indicator of the changing mindset of mainstream society towards the LGBTs.

Indian cinema, mainstream and slightly off-mainstream, reflects the changing positive mindset of the mainstream towards what is generally termed ‘off-mainstream’. We, the so-called ‘mainstream’ are constantly shedding our mental blocks against homosexuality. We are more liberated in accepting, recognising and trying to get a better understanding of sexual desires both heterosexual and homosexual on screen. The stereotypes, the clichés, the lampooning and the satirising of gay and lesbian identities will fade away with time, again to mirror the acceptance of the ‘other’ as just another — one of us.

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