BIG SCREEN Beyond weeping and slammed doors As Pride month draws to a close, will mainstream cinema move on from the coming-out experience? Gay story (from left) Stills from My Son Is Gay, Irattajeevitham and Evening Shadows. transman in a small coastal village in attract a bigger audience. In the trailer Kerala, and is narrated in a sombre of the gay coming-of-age film, Love, Si- tone, as if mourning the loss of a pre- mon, the protagonist says, “I’m just like transitioned body. you, except I have one huge-ass secret: One could attribute the grimness of nobody knows I’m gay.” In the pursuit Indian queer films to the largely hostile to be “just like you”, queer films have of- environment that surrounds LGBTQIA+ ten been criticised for pandering to the citizens in India. It is hardly surprising straight gaze and eliminating “queer- then that directors rarely make homo- ness”. Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By sexuality incidental to the story. Your Name, for instance, diluted the ex- plicit lovemaking and sexual explora- Just a movie tions of André Aciman’s novel, making BY KENNITH ROSARIO some slapping, and a few slammed attracted to men in his gym. Bucking the trend is Sudhanshu Saria’s the film palatable to a larger audience. If doors. Sridhar Rangayan’s Hindi film, The doctor takes him under English-Hindi film,Loev Western progression is to he Kashish Mumbai Internation- Evening Shadows, makes the process his wings, introduces him to (2015). It’s a story of two Queer films be aped, how susceptible al Queer Film Festival this year even more melodramatic by setting it in his gay activist son and ex- young men who, over a <> is Indian queer cinema to had the Asian premiere of Van- the middle of a lake. plains the normalcy of homo- weekend, explore the have often gentrification? T dana Kataria’s Noblemen, where Karthik and his mother are in a cora- sexuality, almost as if addressing various facets of attrac- been criticised In Loev, the Utopia-like Kunal Kapoor is a drama teacher who cle, rowing around leisurely. When she the viewer. tion: friendship, intima- world isn’t a far cry from deals with bullying and homophobia in becomes aware of her son’s sexuality, Queer films certainly pro- cy, love, jealousy and for pandering reality. The protagonists a boarding school. she is crestfallen and confused. Con- vide a fertile ground for violence. Sexuality isn’t to the straight are a Mumbai-based musi- After the screening, one viewer stood fined in the boat, her inner conflict is education, but not with- necessarily a conflict cian and a New York- up and accused the film of depicting gay brought out through melancholic music out the imminent and orientations are gaze and based Wall Street hotshot, men in an unflattering light. “It does and a long shot of the lake against the threat of being didac- kept ambiguous. In eliminating and the only time we’re nothing for the gay movement,” he de- setting sun. In a more mainstream set- tic, or worse, painting a 2016 interview, reminded of their sexuali- clared. Another viewer defended the up, Sunita (Ratna Pathak Shah) stum- queer lives as those Saria said, “I “queerness” ty is when the caretaker film, saying Indian queer films rarely go bles upon her son Rahul’s (Fawad Khan) destined to doom. So don’t want of the guesthouse they’re beyond the coming-out experience. photos with his partner in Kapoor & the big question is: [Loev] to be looked at as an ‘In- staying in gives them one room with two Coming out is undoubtedly a miles- Sons (2016). Her favourite child is no where is Indian queer ci- dian’ or a ‘queer’ or an ‘Indian single beds. The fleeting sequence tone in a queer person’s life, especially longer flawless. nema today? queer’ film. I want it to be opens up another discussion on class when it’s coming out to the family. This A few regional indepen- looked at as a movie.” and sexuality, and whether “relatable innately dramatic moment, when dep- New directions dent films like Nagarkirtan This call for “universality” queer films” can only be made with pro- icted on screen, takes the shape of a While these mothers do come around (Bengali), Khejdi (Hindi) of queer narratives is being tagonists of privilege, and in the case of perfect conflict, enough to drive an en- (with varying degrees of comfort with and Irattajeevitham (Ma- felt in mainstream Holly- Hollywood, with white people. tire film. homosexuality), the primary source of layalam) are bringing in wood. Whether it is Call Me Indian queer cinema is still in its in- When a college-going Varun comes conflict in the stories of gay men re- diverse narratives. By Your Name (2017) or The fancy, and one can hope that with time, out to his mother, he is asked to leave mains their hidden sexuality. In Ku- Suresh Narayanan’s Kids Are All Right (2010), the it’ll grow to form its own canon that cap- home in Lokesh Kumar’s Tamil film,My mar’s film, Varun (Ashwinjith) discreet- Irattajeevitham chronicles fine line between “them” and tures the defiance, fragility and robust- Son Is Gay. There is ample weeping, ly consults a psychiatrist when he is the post-transition life of a “us” is being deliberately blurred to ness of queer lives..