The
other day one of my school friends came out the closet on Facebook. Well, to be
more precise, this person expressed that they were relieved and happy to come
out of the closet. I am not really that convinced by the confession/Facebook
status; not that this person’s sexuality matters to me one way or the other. Anyway, I left it at that considering the sensitive nature of the topic.
**Spoiler Alert!**
Now, my
friend is not the topic of discussion here. A couple of weeks back, I watched a
pretty good Malayalam movie that briefly touches this topic. I was impressed to
see Malayalam cinema come of age. The casting director made a smart choice by selecting
an actor who is perhaps considered the epitome of masculinity to play the gay
character. Brave too, some might add.
Having said
that, I was quite shocked, as was the protagonist in the movie, by the reaction
of the hero when he discovered the main character’s sexuality. I mean, why would someone be
shocked and disappointed if a person is not straight? Why the self-loathing? To
quote R, another friend of mine, “A
brilliantly shot film with a masterful pace of suspense, however [sic] encapsulated with such blatant homophobia.
Is this what bravery means nowadays in mallu Tinseltown?” My thoughts
exactly.
To the
entire Mumbai Police team, bravo for introducing the theme to
mainstream Malayalam movies, sincerely. But shame on you for shaming gays and lesbians,
that too in front of a narrow-minded set of people. Apologies Mallus, but we
are a narrow-minded lot, for the most of it.
LOVE LOVE LOVE this post. I hate how gays are portrayed in Indian cinema... leave malayalam movies... the way they are portrayed in movies like Dostana is just infuriating.
ReplyDeleteThanks Deepthy :)
DeleteI rarely watch Hindi movies, so I'm quite unaware what happens up north. Rosshan Andrrews and Prithviraj did good till that revelation scene. The rest of the movie was a bit of a let down, movie-wise and social-message-wise.
I am reminded of that old malayalam classic "Desatanakkili Karayarilla" by the maestro story teller Padmarajan. How deftly he portrayed a story about two people whose love for each other didn't require any labels. I believe it was one of the first films that had a soft LGBT undertone without actually spelling it out and thereby not making the conservative mallu audience uncomfortable.In this day and age it would seem like a lazy cop out by the director, but there was no other way he could have narrated that story at that time.
ReplyDeleteAnd the ironic thing is , such a movie could not be made today and be successful as it was then.