Every year, June is celebrated as Pride month in honour of the LGBTQIA+ community. The month is celebrated to raise awareness, teach acceptance, discuss pride history, and above all, express love and compassion for the LGBTQIA+ community. When it comes to depiction of the community, Indian cinema has often been stereotypical, crude, caricaturish and derogatory towards the community. However, there have been some filmmakers who have broken this model to explore sexuality in informed and sensitive ways.
Let's have look at some of the Bollywood films that tried to break the pattern to empathetically portray the lives of the LGBTQIA+ community.
KAPOOR & SONS
Shakun Batra's family saga starring late Rishi Kapoor, Sidharth Malhotra, Fawad Khan, Ratna Pathak Shah and Rajat Kapoor portrays the life of two brothers Rahul Kapoor (Fawad Khan) and Arjun Kapoor (Sidharth Malhotra)who lock horns on the silliest of things. The story takes another turn when Rahul’s mother Sunita Kapoor (Rathna Pathak Shah) breaks down discovering that her 'perfect' son is gay. Suddenly, her love and affection towards him starts to fade away and changes to unacceptance. Not once in the movie, they mention the word ‘gay’ or it is openly depicting coming out story. However, Fawad Khan's acting and breaking the ‘cinema stereotype’ especially in previous Dharma Production movies is what makes this movie worth watching.
ALIGARH
The 2015 Hansal Mehta directed film is the true story of Professor Ramchandra Siras played by Manoj Bajpayee, who was suspended from Aligarh University on grounds of morality when he was found having sexual intimacy with a rickshaw puller. After the incident, he was brutally harassed and ridiculed by society. The film got critical acclaim for portraying this story in a sensitive yet real way. The film also features the brilliant performance of Rajkummar Rao who plays the role of journalist Deepu Sebastian and fights for professor Siras's justice.
BOMBAY TALKIES
Comprising of four short films, the first part Ajeeb Dastaan Hai Yeh tells the story of a young Avinash who left his parent's home to live a life on his own terms. He was disowned by his parents after he opened up about his sexuality. Unbothered by the societal norms and stereotypes, Avinash takes a fresh start in life and secures an internship in a popular magazine and gets close to a colleague named Gayatri (Rani Mukerji). Gayatri, trapped in a loveless marriage, discovers that her husband Dev (Randeep Hooda) is a closeted homosexual. The movie ends with Dev realising his attraction towards Avinash.
EK LADKI KO DEKHA TOH AISA LAGA
This was one of the first times main movie portrayed the story of same sex love story. The film starred some of the biggest names of the industry including Sonam Kapoor, Anil Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao. The film revolved around the story of Sweety Chaudhary, an innocent bubbly girl born and brought up in a fun-loving and traditional Punjabi family. The film depicts how Sweety always wanted to be a bride since childhood but after growing up, she realises that she doesn't want a groom to be on the other side. The film depicts how Sweety faces extreme opposition from her family and society for homosexuality. The movie ends Sweety uniting with her love Kuhu.
SHUBH MANGAL ZYADA SAAVDHAN
Ayushmann Khurrana and Jitendra Kumar starrer is the most recent same sex relationship story to release in India. The film depicts the story of two gay men Aman and Kartik. The film portrays the struggles faced by Kartik and Aman for being a same-sex couple in an orthodox Indian society. In the film, Aman's family tries hard to separate both of them; however, Kartik doesn't take a single step back and fight out all the odds to marry Aman.
MARGARITA WITH A STRAW
Shonali Bose's Margarita With A Straw represents the story of Laila played Kalki Koechlin, a talented writer and musician suffering from cerebral palsy who is also a lesbian. The film portrays the shame that accompanies homosexuality and disability in its ways. Laila's relationship with Khanum is what makes the film stand out.
MY BROTHER NIKHIL
The film is set in Goa and revolves around the story of Nikhil Kapoor (Sanjay Suri), a state-level swimmer who is loved and adored by his family. Things take a turn when Nikhil is diagnosed with HIV and everyone in his family goes against him and treats him in worst way. They portray the problems Nikhil faces when the police arrests him and puts him behind bars for being homosexual and having HIV AIDs. Nikhil's sister Anamika (Juhi Chawla) and boyfriend Nigel (Purab Kohli) turn the ray of hope for him and love him the same which they used to do before.
