THE LGBTQ+ REPRESENTATION IN HINDI CINEMA FROM 1990 TO 2020
Two years ago, on this day, history was made when the Supreme Court unanimously struck down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which criminalized same sex relations. But, the question still remains: has anything changed?
In view of the same, let’s take a look at the Hindi Cinema and its treatment of the LGBTQ+ community over the years.
The LGBTQ+ community, which is also known as the Queer community includes individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transexual, queer, questioning, intersex, intergender, asexuals, pansexual, agender, genderqueer, bigender, gender variant, and pangender. Even though LGBTQ+ is a commonly used term, this initialism and the various terms are always evolving.
Despite a large number of the Indian population being queer, the topic is still a taboo in the country and homophobia is quite prevalent. Public discussion of homosexuality in India has been inhibited by the fact that sexuality in any form is rarely discussed openly. In recent years, however, attitudes towards homosexuality have shifted slightly. But mental, physical, emotional, and economic violence against the LGBTQ+ community in India prevails. Lacking support from family, society, or police, many gay rape victims do not report the crimes.
Given the reach that Hindi cinema has, it can act as a catalyst in breaking stereotypes around various issues that are not to be talked about in public.
While there are various issues that are becoming the basis of film making in India, the issue of the LGBTQ+ community has not occupied much space in Hindi Cinema, especially in commercial films. The commercial Hindi films have shown the community very often as part of a film to introduce humor content in the films. Films have failed to deal with community problems and issues, which shows the lack of acceptability of the community in mainstream films. Cinema is considered as a reflection of society, while gender and sexuality remain at the core of how we think about our identities.
Though Hindi Cinema has gay and transsexual characters, they have been primarily ridiculed or abused, often done in satirical, comical, and stereotypical ways. Barring a few exceptions, it is only in recent times that the LGBTQ+ community has seen some positive representation and a more sensitive, and empathic representation of the struggles that the community and the consequences of coming out of the closet.
Using case studies of five Hindi films featuring LGBTQ+ characters over a period of two decades from the year 1990 to 2017, I tried to understand if there has been any change in the portrayal of this community and if so, has it been negative or positive. These movies are Sadak (1991), Fire (1996), Sangharsh (1999), Aligarh (2016), and Kapoor and Sons (2016).
Sadak (1991)
Sadak glorified trans persons as cruel, blood-curdling villains, with not a shred of human empathy or emotion. The villain who was a transgender was involved in trafficking away little girls into prostitution. The image was so scary that they remain etched in the minds of almost every person who watched it.
Sadashiv Amrapurkar’s performance fetched him a Filmfare award but the role did little to improve the image of transgenders in society. In a film where the trans character got so much screen time, there was a constant reiteration of the harmful myths associated with the trans community, ultimately creating a stereotype in Indian mainstream culture which became hard to shake off. Taking off from this, countless other films both big and small (most recent of which was 2011’s ‘Murder 2’) played on this trope of the ‘evil-trans-brothel-owner-slash-villain’.
Fire (1996)
Though Deepa Mehta’s alien concept was quite shocking and appalling for the Indian audience, for the first time a movie with lesbianism as the theme turned out to be thought-provoking. The film faced a lot of protests from various fringe groups. The fundamentalists caused a great deal of physical damage to the cinema halls screening the movie.
Fire blends and juxtaposes diverging concerns over a range of issues; around the issues of Indian culture and tradition and the growing tendency on the part of Hindu fundamentalists to impose their own definitions through both violent and legal measures, freedom of artistic expression, oppression of woman and her sexuality, the question of homosexuality in India, etc. It provided the perfect space for these issues to be openly discussed. It was also deployed as a space to articulate the potential caveat against subscribing to the same biological reductionism that is fundamental to the patriarchal arrangements by drawing a direct link between sexual emancipation and freedom from oppression.
Sangharsh (1999)
One of the major setbacks to the LGBTQ+ community, especially the transgenders, Sangharsh gave its trans character a horrific treatment. The character of Lajja Shankar Pandey takes us 1000 steps backward where the trans person is seen as outside the bounds of ‘normal’-as a sexual predator, a child molester, or someone who is out to prey on a (cis) hero or heroine.
Though the film has a significant amount of time allotted to the transgender character, they are also depicted as a negative character who is arrogant, insensitive and demonizes other characters by virtue of sexuality.
Aligarh (2016)
Aligarh was a very important film, a milestone in the history of Indian cinema that should have started the much-needed conversation about how India treats a visible and yet often ignored minority group. It was especially significant in the context of the gay rights activists and their struggles to remove Article 377 from the Indian Penal Code. This movie emphasized that gays and lesbians should be protected by the law, their rights recognized by the courts. India needs to wake up to this reality — that is the message of the film. Without getting too verbose, Manoj Bajpai as Dr. Siras tried to explain the practical problems in the life of an average gay trying to lead the life of an ordinary person.
Manoj Bajpayee essayed the role of the victimized, shy and unassuming professor to perfection, who is forced to fight his battle, single-handedly. With his gait, speech, and underplayed histrionics, Manoj is the character the audience could believe in. The silences in his performance and vulnerability in his eyes were used by him effectively to convey his anguish and loneliness. Looking crushed and broken as the closet homosexual, a word he does not even understand, while hanging lamely onto his empty balderdash Brahminism, Bajpayee plays the role to perfection.
Kapoor and Sons (2016)
Fawad Khan plays a gay man minus the cliched camp that heteronormative Bollywood typically saddles gay characters with. The effect is that Kapoor and Sons place Rahul’s(Fawad’s character in the film) personhood before his sexual orientation, allowing him the complexity films so often deny non-mainstream characters.
This film does a lot of great things, especially when it comes to queer representation — and the least of it is having an actor who’s universally adored (and with an extensive female fan following) play a gay character, essentially breaking the stigma that mainstream heroes can’t play gay roles without their careers being affected. But more than that, this film starts conversations about sexuality — especially in the middle-class family structure — that is hardly addressed, and are sorely needed.
It was one of the few films which had characters from the LGBTQ+ community portrayed with sensitivity, and have taken up problems of so-far marginalized people in a more real sense.
CONCLUSION
Emotional complexities have a predominant influence on self-realization. As a result, there occurs an awakening of one’s own identity. The satirical and unrealistic representation of the queer community has attached a stigma related to their identity. Bollywood (mainstream Hindi cinema, in general) has always had a difficult and, sometimes, appalling history of the crass portrayal of LGBTQ characters.
Generally, films portray homosexual characters either for humor or merely as an element to show a distinctive sexual identity. But they do not make any effort to show the situations or circumstances that help a person to look into one’s own identity. There are internal as well as external factors that shape a person’s sexual behavior.
Even though films like Fire, Aligarh, and Kapoor and Sons tried to break from the mainstream, stereotypical representation of the LGBTQ+ community, they are just small steps in starting the debate on the struggles that the community goes through.
Last year’s Netflix drama Sacred Games portrayed a transwoman (although played by a cis female), Kukoo, in a pivotal, powerful role. Movies like Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga and Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan were also important in taking the conversation forward.
Our sense of ‘natural’ or ‘normal’ is derived from things that we frequently see around us. What the television debates mean by abnormal is actually rare. The solution to this problem, then, could lie in naturalizing and normalizing same-sex desire. So how do we do it? Not necessarily through these tedious debates or flamboyant Pride-marches. We will have to use the same tools that are used against us: the stories, films, songs, ads.
Cutting across class, gender, language, and caste, Hindi films should tell the stories of such persons living in our country in a realistic and emotional manner in order to sensitize the society. Films should suggest possible solutions to their problems. Stories should be crafted in such a manner that our society starts accepting them as they are. Films should portray sexual minorities in an authentic and genuine way so that our society, instead of ridiculing them, come forward and stands for their cause.
[1] Kaur, P. (2017). Gender, Sexuality and (Be) longing: The Representation of Queer (LGBT) in Hindi Cinema http://amity.edu/UserFiles/asco/journal/ISSUE50_3.%20Pushpinder.pdf
[2] IANS (2018,09,06). Society must treat the LGBT community with respect: Aligarh director Hansal Mehta on section 377 https://www.timesnownews.com/entertainment/news/people/article/society-must-treat-lgbt-community-with-respect-aligarh-director-hansal-mehta-on-section-377/281015
[3] Goswami, Y. (2016,02,05). Homosexuals are not vampires. Why we need more gay representation in pop culture https://www.newslaundry.com/2016/02/05/homosexuals-are-not-vampires-why-we-need-more-gay-representation-in-pop-culture
[4] Srivastav,P. (2016,04,01). The portrayal of LGBT characters in Bollywood: Will it help in building a less homophobic society?https://www.news18.com/news/movies/portrayal-of-lgbt-characters-in-bollywood-will-it-help-in-building-a-less-homophobic-society-1223371.html
[5] Pooja, J. (2018). Indian Cinema and Its Portrayal of Emotional Complexities of LGBT Community
https://acadpubl.eu/hub/2018-119-12/articles/7/1818.pdf
