Queer Girl Kahanis My Current Obsession - Kalinda Sharma AKA Archie Panjabi I have no idea how I missed out on this show and Archie Panjabi! She there only for a lil bit, but she is soooooooooo good!! I am talking about The Good Wife! But wait, she wasn’t really invisible to me, because that name first got imprinted in my head way before I have ever heard of The Good Wife show. It from when I first saw her in ‘Bend It Like Beckham’ in the mid-2000. I kept hearing her name here and there in the Indo-UK movie scene, but that is just as a result of my love for movies and her talent! It wasn’t until recently when a friend pointed out the queer angle in the series ‘The Good Wife’ and….little Googling and oogling I realised that Archie’s character is the Queer woman and BAM, I started watching the show….and that’s was the best thing ever…Enter Kalinda Sharma! Enter Kalinda Sharma Most episodes are around legal battles and courthouse drama, and the lead character Alicia Florrick (played by Julianna Margulies), the strong-well-written-lead woman character with a strong personality and very well played too! On the other hand, the charming, sarcastic, strikingly brilliant and sharp Kalinda Sharma (played by Archie Panjabi) was what got me hooked to the show. I binge watched the show and I researched (read: stalked) Archie Panjabi when I am not watching the show…her interviews, other shows and everything else the internet had offered to me! Charming, sarcastic, strikingly brilliant and sharp Kalinda Sharma!! Of course, she became a frequenter in most of my discussion with my friends, both online and offline…and a lot of my queer friends mentioned how she helped them through lonely-long-work nights and days, while some have the hots and hoots for Julianna. For a week or so, I obsessed, obsessed so much that my flatmate said I might queergirlkahanis.wordpress.com | facebook.com/QueerGirlKahanis Queer Girl Kahanis need medical attention (of course she was joking!). Well, I think I was far more obsessed about Anna Kendrick at a point and this was not that bad! All was fine, till I started watching her in other shows, where she was a totally different person, thanks to the brilliant actor she is! A little bit of introspection, I understood that it is Kalinda Sharma, the character, I was obsessed about and not so much Archie Panjabi. Archie, I like her, I have immense respect for her work, both on and off screen. She has a certain charm, a certain air around her in her interviews. She is funny (not as funny as Anna Kendrick, lol), trained ballet dancer, hardworking and very competent actress! Ms. Panjabi is an amazing person, her contribution towards women’s right and philanthropy is tremendous and commendable, but there was something about Kalinda that was driving me mad (or maybe the lack of it). “YES people, lesbians have woman friends whom they don’t want to sleep with….it’s not always about sex!” Alicia Florrick and Kalinda Sharma in “The Good Wife” Lack of it because, there is little you know about her, in the show or from her character and she’s like this kickass woman who knows how to get shit done. All that leather, those knee-high boots, that attitude and the sexual fluidity…all so alluring!! I am not really ‘for’ the way she uses her sexuality to get her work done, but hey men flirt their way around all the time! Kalinda Sharma is such a badass and the relationship she shares with Alicia is so well done, well written. YES people, lesbians have woman friends whom they don’t want to sleep with….it’s not always about sex! Apart from all the hotness, for me…she is the first Indian queer woman on mainstream TV. Well, we did have Nandita Das (from Fire ), Kalki (from Margarita With a Straw and pretty outspoken about sexuality) Sheetal Sheth and Lisa Ray, but Archie’s character has the hotness and kickass personality that none of the others have! Being such a huge industry, Bollywood was not able to give its Queer women audience a good character to relate to. It only has cheesy and horribly written lesbian character like them women from Girlfriend, which of course is to purely satisfy the male audience. India might never give us a decent lead Queer character, but till then I have Kalinda! queergirlkahanis.wordpress.com | facebook.com/QueerGirlKahanis Queer Girl Kahanis Archie’s talent is definitely adding movies and series to my ‘want to watch’ list, but Kalinda needs her own spinoff! Until then, I will just have to be happy with the fanfiction around Lana Delaney/Kalinda Sharma and Kalinda Sharma/Dana Lodge! I am still on the third season of The Good Wife, so still enjoying her presence on the show! yay! queergirlkahanis.wordpress.com | facebook.com/QueerGirlKahanis .