What Roy deserves appreciation for is his candid acknowledgement about the limited scope of his study. This is indeed surprising because the book was published in 2020, and the author had sufficient time to update his research. Such news disturbed me a lot, and I decided to work on the community’s representation in media, especially cinema.” While he devotes several pages to remarks on the precarious legal status of gay men’s sexuality, privacy and identity, the book makes only a passing reference to the Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling in the Navtej Singh Johar vs Union of India case. In the preface, Roy writes, “The whole politics of survival of the queer community was already at its brim with murders, suicides, raids on NGOs, and several extortion cases getting media attention. The journey of writing this book started in 2012, and it got completed in 2017. Those classes gave Roy the intellectual tools to analyse the movies he was watching, and discussions with his classmates encouraged him to look at ‘queer cinema’ as a genre in itself. ![]() It was taught by Richard Allen, a scholar who writes on film theory and has worked extensively on Indian cinema. This book began to take shape in Roy’s mind while attending a certificate course in film appreciation at the India Habitat Centre in Delhi. Though Bombay Boys (1998) and Mango Souffle (2002) were made in English, they did feature actors who have worked in Hindi films. Roy’s book provides multiple references for readers who would like to catch up on older Bollywood films such as (2005), Traffic Signal (2007), Life In A…Metro (2007), Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Also, the kiss between Ayushmann Khurrana and Jitendra Kumar was not the first ever expression of sexual intimacy between two gay men in a Hindi film. It stands on the shoulders of predecessors who have portrayed gay men on screen in more conservative times. This context helps readers understand that the heavily publicized Bollywood film Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan (2020) did not emerge out of thin air. He also documents various instances of cross-dressing by seemingly heterosexual characters in Half Ticket (1962), Kismat (1968), Rafoo Chakkar (1975), Laawaris (1981), Khalnayak (1993), Andaz Apna Apna (1994), Baazi (1995), among others. Some of the examples he offers are Dilip Kumar and Nasir Khan in Ganga Jamuna (1961), Shammi Kapoor and Anoop Kumar in Junglee (1961), Feroz Khan and Rajendra Kumar in Arzoo (1965), Rajesh Khanna and Sujit Kumar in Aradhana (1969), Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra in Sholay (1975), and Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan in Main Khiladi Tu Anari (1994). ![]() He teaches at the Indira Gandhi National Open University’s School of Gender and Development Studies.ĭoes increasing visibility in Bollywood films ensure that gay men in India are treated with respect? How many of these films use gay men only to provide comic relief in a heteronormative script? Are gay men presented as deviants, or as people who have a right to exist on their own terms? Do filmmakers reduce them to their sexual orientation, or explore multiple aspects of their personalities? How often do they get to experience love, warmth and fulfilment? Is the audience invited to empathize with them, despise them or just feel sorry? Roy pushes readers to think about these questions as they go through the ten chapters in his book.īefore delving into how economic liberalization opened up space for greater representation of gay men, Roy looks at the tropes of homoeroticism and bromance in Bollywood films. The author makes an important contribution to the public record around how popular culture has shaped up alongside developments in grassroots organizing and academic scholarship. Eight of them are discussed in detail - My Brother Nikhil (2005), Yours Emotionally (2006), Dostana (2008) Fashion (2008), Pankh (2010), Dunno Y Na Jaane Kyun (2010), I Am Omar (2011), and Bombay Talkies (2013). Himadri Roy’s new book Reel and the Real: Portrayal of Gay Men in Bollywood Films (2020), published by Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, makes an effort to chronicle a large number of these movies. While activism and litigation were the front-runners in ensuring that Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code was read down by the Supreme Court, Bollywood films too have played a significant role in widening the discourse around gay rights in India. While this approach helps to create hype, it obscures the long history of Hindi films that depict same-sex relationships, engage with homophobia, and create visibility for people who are marginalized in society because of their sexual orientation. (An edited version of this book review was first published in Hindustan Times.)Įvery Bollywood release with gay characters is marketed as the first film of its kind to break the silence around homosexuality in India.
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