LIST: 100 Queer Films of India (Part 2)

CONTINUED FROM PART 1

Here's a look at how Indian cinema (both in India and the diaspora worldwide) has represented queer issues in India over the ages. Vikram Phukan had originally compiled this Alternative Guide to Cinema as part of the April 2009 issue of Bombay Dost magazine, India's first and only registered LGBT publication, issues of which can be purchased online.

Fire (1996) English, dir. by Deepa Mehta with Nandita Das, Shabana Azmi

Decried by gay activists as a film depicting ‘situational’ lesbians, Fire is rather less simplistic in its treatment of two women trapped in loveless marriages who ‘discover’ one another. The illicit affair is fraught with the underpinings of guilt and self-loathing, but there is mirth and exuberance, as in the scene where Sita (Das) cross-dresses and lip-synchs to the Hemant Kumar number Aaja Zara while Radha (Azmi) plays the demure ingénue, and also compassion when Radha breaks her sister-in-law’s Karwa Chauth fast, and looks upon her, newly empowered. These are women conditioned to traditional notions of home and hearth, who can now feel the shackles of repression slip away through the forbidden pleasure of their love for each other.

Flesh and Paper (1990) English, dir. by Pratibha Parmar with Suniti Namjoshi (as herself)

The poet and writer Suniti Namjoshi, one of the first ‘out’ Indian lesbians, is lionized in this intimate portrait, that draws from her poetry a lyricism that translates into a rich visual narrative. One of Parmar’s visceral triumphs, this ranks as an important signpost of queer cinema, alongside her earlier film Khush, an evocative peek into the secret erotic lives of desi queers.

Girlfriend (2004) Hindi, dir. by Karan Razdan with Isha Koppikar, Amrita Arora

Isha Koppikar plays a predatory lesbian scorned by the woman she loves. Absolutely horrifying prurient pap that generated controversy with both right-wingers (for ostensibly promoting lesbianism) and gay rights activists.

Gulabi Aaina (2003) Hindi, dir. by Sridhar Rangayan with Edwin Fernandes

Dubbed India’s first film on drag queens and banned in India, this is a risqué and over-the-top frolic in which a couple of ageing queens vie for the attention of a hunk, with some droll musical interludes thrown in, along with a dash of glitter and lace, and some dope on AIDS that stops just short of being preachy.

Happy Hookers (2006) Hindi, dir. by Ashish Sawhny

Ashish Sawhny’s ground-breaking documentary is unfortunately one that is yet to be certified in India. The film follows the lives of three male prostitutes in Mumbai who project a startlingly progressive attitude towards their sexuality, their profession, and their lives in general, despite struggling to stay afloat in a social climate that pushes them underground. The men represent a whole spectrum of the urban gay experience, from family man Imran, who is a recent father and devout Muslim, but enjoys giving his male clients their jollies, to Vicky who shuttles in and out of a hijra commune without committing himself to its rigours, and Shakeel, who is the only one who explicitly identifies himself as gay.

Helen, Queen of the Nautch Girls (1973) English, dir. by Anthony Korner with Helen (as herself)

That indubitably twinkle-toed pixie Helen, who’s traipsed her way through countless films into the hearts of successive generations of Indians, is the subject of this Merchant-Ivory documentary, which is essentially a montage of her extravagant production numbers, accompanied by Korner’s commentary, which at times reeks of cultural short-sightedness, although a free-wheeling interview with Helen herself atones for this. To gay audiences, Helen has always appeared to revel in her ‘otherness’. As Suzy, or Lily, or any other silk-stockinged alterego, she’s always the quintessential bad girl who transgresses, smokes, dances with gay abandon, wearing the most exuberantly mounted costumes you’d want to dive straight into if only to escape into a world where anything goes, where being different is good, and you’d even take a bullet in your heart for that.

Holi (1984) Hindi, dir. by Ketan Mehta with Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Ashutosh Gowarikar

Based on the play by Mahesh Elkunchwar, this film feeds off its own spontaneous energy, as unrest among students due to a cancelled holiday exacerbates into something more sinister through a series of spiralling incidents, that ultimately drive a young man (who is ‘coded’ as homosexual) to suicide after an extended spell of ragging at the hands of his rowdy classmates. 

Honeymoon Travels Private Limited (2007)  Hindi, dir. by Reema Kagti with Abhay Deol, Raima Sen

Madhu (Sandhya Mridul) happily embarks on a marriage of convenience with a gay man Bunty (Vikram Chatwal), easily digesting the big revelation as her own reasons for getting hitched were far from honest (she just wanted to marry an NRI richie). Elsewhere, Vicky (Karan Khanna) has only just been confronted with the force of the attraction he feels towards other men, but may settle for his Punjab di kudi (Amisha Patel). These are the easy-as-pat solutions offered by Reema Kagti in her debut feature, one of the first films from a big production house to eschew stereotypical portrayals of gay men (although still not quite steering clear of the clichés).

I Can’t Think Straight (2007) English, dir. by Shamim Sarif with Sheetal Sheth, Lisa Ray

One of two back-to-back lesbian movies that Ray and Sheth have done with director Sarif, this film is an inter-racial love story set in London, between the Middle Eastern Tala (Sheth) and the British Indian Leyla (Ray). Differences in temperament, a clash of cultural roots, and misunderstandings galore raise the star-crossed quotient a few notches at least, before the lovers can ride away into the sunset. In the same director's The World Unseen set in apartheid-era South Africa with Ray and Sheth again, there is a role-reversal of sorts. Miriam (Ray) is a subservient and conflicted Indian mother who is drawn to the feisty no-nonsense Amina (Sheth), owner of a local café and champion for the rights of her African workers. This is a depiction of gently unfolding lesbian love that appears almost precipitated by the behavior of Miriam’s boorish husband and by the thrill of transgressing social taboos.

In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones (1989) English, dir. by Pradip Krishen with Arjun Raina, Roshan Seth

Features Shahrukh Khan in one of his earliest roles, as a purportedly gay student of architecture — channelising ‘limp-wristedness’ by having his arm in a sling throughout his tiny cameo. Partly autobiographical screenplay by Arundhati Roy (still available to buy) gives this obscure gem a little touch of anarchy.

Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na (2008) Hindi, dir. by Abbas Tyrewala with Imran Khan, Genelia

Abbas Tyrewala introduces some refreshing new-age ‘homosexual’ coding, by moulding his gay characters in less than stereotypical ways. Shaleen (Sugandha Garg) is allowed an endearing boyish insouciance and reserves of empathy, whereas painter Amit (Prateik Babbar) is invested with dollops of existential angst and comic interludes that gently humour his persuasions. This film shows how gay characters can be drawn based on their innate qualities as people rather than their behavioural quirks, although they still largely remain creatures of the subtext.

Jihad For Love, A (2007) English, Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Hindi, French, Turkish, dir. by Parvez Sharma

A remarkable achievement in many ways, A Jihad for Love strings together a compelling narrative in nine languages that spans across twelve different countries. It tries to reconcile homosexuality with the tenets of Islam, as witnessed in the stories it relates, of men and women grappling with their personal faith, while also allowing themselves the space in which their own sexual rites of passage can best be realized. Any common ground is hard to come by, and indeed the outcome of this documentary is fairly open-ended and far from satisfactory, yet it still remains a powerful commentary on conflict and oppression. There are moments, like when the children of the gay imam Muhsin Hendricks are rather tongue-in-cheek about his being stoned to death, or when a woman takes a girlfriend to meet her mother for the first time and they joke about lesbian parrots, that makes this an almost bitter-sweet human document rather than merely a bleak perspective into the lives of its central characters. 

Jodhaa Akbar (2008) Hindi, dir. by Ashutosh Gowarikar with Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai

At times politically correct to the point of stiltedness, this epic period drama nonetheless gives us a tantalising peek into the lives that may have been lived by the hijras of the harem, at a time when the third gender enjoyed some status and hadn’t yet been relegated to the fringes of society. More important is the mesmerising track composed and performed by A R Rahman, Khwaja Mere Khwaja, featuring a swirling dance by Sufi dervishes, so reminiscent of the spiritual ideas held dear by many gay Muslims, influenced as they are by Sufism and its ambivalent romantic mysticism, and the lyrical stories of Shah Hussain and Madho Lal, or Amir Khusrau and Nizam-ud-din Auliya. Much of Jodhaa Akbar underlines these notions of inclusiveness and conciliation, as embodied by Emperor Akbar, played here evocatively by Hrithik Roshan, one of India’s most empathetic leading men ever.

Jogwa (2009) Marathi, dir. by Rajiv Patil with Uupendra Limaye, Mukta Barve

(Review coming soon)

Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003) Hindi, dir. by Nikhil Advani with Shahrukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Preity Zinta

This romantic comedy introduces the character of the maid Kantaben (Sulbha Arya) who walks in on two men caught up in what she presumes to be a romantic cinch, and is quite memorably aghast. Gay-panic humour has almost irrevocably become part of the filmi comedy track, supplying an endless stream of gross-out gags in blockbusters like Masti and Golmaal Returns, in which it is amply clear that the joke is on gay men, even though Kantaben herself may have been written to rib about popular prejudices in an affectionate vein. The two leading men also enter into the horse-play with a lot of gusto, and without any ‘gay’ tics, which makes this film considerably less parochial than its natural successor, last year’s Dostana.

Kali Maa (2007) English, dir. by Soman Chainani with Kamini Khanna

Kamini Khanna won’t stand for her son’s homophobic bullying even if it’s at the hands of the dishy college jock. A badly-acted, but nonetheless delightful little tour de force.

Kalyug (2005) Hindi, dir. by Mohit Suri with Kunal Khemu, Deepal Shaw, Amrita Singh

Annie (Shaw) hatches a plan to infiltrate the illicit world of porn baroness Simi Roy (Singh) by seducing her disaffected lesbian daughter (Nisha Lalwani) at a pride parade no less, and with all the right moves.

Kama Sutra — A Tale of Love (1996) English, dir. by Mira Nair with Rekha, Indira Verma

A stint at Rasa Devi’s provides Maya (Verma) with the faculty of bestowing upon her repressed queen (Sarita Choudhury) the wings of sexual ecstasy, in a gratuitously long lovemaking scene. Rekha is Rasa Devi, the alluring high priestess of poise who trains her girls in the art of copulation, while mouthing pithy aphorisms from the Kama Sutra, in a role that reprises her work in Girish Karnad’s Utsav.

Kohra (1964) Hindi, dir. by Biren Nag with Waheeda Rehman, Biswajeet, Lalita Pawar

An atmospheric remake of Hitchcock’s Rebecca, Judith Anderson’s forbidding and ghoulish presence is reborn in Lalita Pawar’s turn as the equally intimidating Dai Maa, although the eerie lesbian undertones seem to have degressed into some kind of creepy maternal fervour. The dead Rebecca is now a singing ghost who gives Waheeda Rehman’s newly-wed bride the heebie-jeebies. There are other films that could feature in some kind of Lalita Pawar lesbian retrospective, especially those in which impressionable young girls are under her menacing charge as in the Shantaram classic Parchaiyyan, and in the comedies Professor, Mr and Mrs 55 or even Junglee - her characters are often laced with a brand of comic-book feminism, and almost always despise men with a vengeance.

Kaminey (2009) Hindi, dir. by Vishal Bharadwaj with Shahid Kapoor, Chandan Roy Sanyal

In the film, Charlie (Shahid Kapoor) is taken in by a gang of arms-dealing Bengali brothers, the youngest of whom is the curiously named Mikhail. As they grow up together they develop a kinship that plays out rather combustibly on screen. When they greet each other it’s with whoops and kisses, head-butts and cuddles. They engage themselves as rivals in play but partners at work. When Charlie chances upon his ticket to the big time—a stash of high-grade cocaine stuffed into a guitar case—and breaks the news to Mikhail, then, after a skirmish involving fists and shoves, they wrestle in more than genial fashion on the floor, Mikhail on a high from the snorting, transgressing Charlie’s physical space. This leads to the film’s only big production number Dhan te naan, a celebration of male bonding. A subtle touch in the end shows Charlie naming his bookie-counter Mikhail & Co., after his deceased ‘beau’. (Read Complete Essay )

Kunwara Baap (1974) Hindi, dir. by Amarlal Chabria with Mehmood, Bharathi

Hijras finally become part of the Bollywood landscape in this film, with the rambunctious Rafi ballad Saj Rahi Gali. Since then they’ve been used derisively as objects of caricature in countless films, ridiculed and vilified, except sometimes when the depictions have been more neutral, as in the rousing hijra anthem Tayyeb Ali Jaan Ki Dushman from Amar Akbar Anthony.

Life In A.. Metro (2007) Hindi, dir. by Anurag Basu with Shilpa Shetty, Irrfan Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma

Yet again (after Page 3) Konkona Sen Sharma walks in on her boyfriend (Gautam Kapoor) shamelessly fumbling under the sheets with another man. This results in her bursting out into a self-righteous homily about why gay people shouldn’t keep ruining lives, but we smelt it a mile off, baby. The double lives many gay men lead have frequently been shown in a light that’s blatantly one-sided, and this film is no exception.

Luck by Chance (2009) Hindi, dir. by Zoya Akhtar with Farhan Akhtar, Konkona Sen Sharma, Hrithik Roshan

Ashish Sawhny plays a gossip journalist Tanveer who gives budding actor Vikram (Akhtar) his first taste of slander, and adds himself to the growing pantheon of celluloid homosexuals who betray that wide-eyed martyr Konkona Sen Sharma is almost typecast as.

Main Khiladi Tu Anari (1994) Hindi, dir. by Abbas Mustan with Akshay Kumar, Saif Ali Khan

Akshay and Saif, newly minted gay icons of the ’90s, get all hot, sticky and wet doing a suggestive bump n’ grind routine to the title track by Anu Malik. For the first time the buddy movie is imbued with a saucy sexual dimension rather than just the stray mushy line or an adoring look or two, as directors get increasingly aware of the new emerging gay demographic.

Mandi (1983) Hindi, dir. by Shyam Benegal with Smita Patil, Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah

In this black comedy, Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil, doyennes of Indian parallel cinema, bring in a frisky intimacy to the relationship between two women, one a brothel madam Rukmini Bai (Azmi) and the other, her prized ward Zeenat (Patil), as they take turns in doing each other’s hair, while humming the film’s signature nazm by Mir Taqi Mir, Zabaanein Badalti Hai, while generally sprawled out on one another.

Mango Soufflé (2002) English, dir. by Mahesh Dattani with Atul Kulkarni, Heeba Shah

In adapting his play On a Muggy Night in Mumbai into a rather stagy film, Dattani seems to have missed an opportunity. What could have been the cornerstone of contemporary gay cinema, is instead a re-telling of tired clichés in a film that had to disguise its gay quotient with the tag ‘metrosexual’. The cardboard characters, however sympathetically drawn, do not quite become reservoirs of their generation’s lacerated self-regard or indeed its somewhat unexpected optimism. This is not our Boys in the Band.

Manjuben Truckdriver (2002) Hindi, dir. by Sherna Dastur with Manjuben (as herself)

In this cutting-edge documentary, Manjuben is a butch truck-driver and self-made businesswoman, whose non-conformist and unapologetic social identity flies in the face of accepted notions of gender and sexuality. Manjuben straddles the world she’s created for herself in almost larger-than-life fashion, although Dastur does attempt to deconstruct that persona with her revealing eye for detail.

Many People Many Desires (2004) Hindi, dir. by T Jayashree

This documentary proves how much Indian queers live under the spectre of such crushing repression that a mere glimpse into their otherwise undocumented lives can be an almost visceral triumph. An in-depth visual chronicle features a selection of men and women candidly recounting stories from their lives.

Mast Kalandar (1991) Hindi, dir. by Rahul Rawail with Dharmendra, Dimple Kapadia, Anupam Kher

This film has tried to garner for itself brownie points for supposedly featuring India’s first ‘out-and-out’ gay character, a concoction of every conceivable stereotype, called (no-prizes-for-guessing) Pinku. This is an unwelcome addition to the repertoire of an otherwise great actor Anupam Kher, who pulls this stock character out, now and again, in other films like Dulhan Hum Le Jayenge. Give it a rest, Sir.

CONTINUED IN PART 3

Comments

[S]

I'm pretty surprised that you didn't include My Brother Nikhil (powerful film)

and Touch of Pink should have gotten a mention at least!