CSB Promotion - KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival 2013

KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival 2013 Poster

It’s been only 4 years since Sridhar Rangayan, the director of LGBT themed films – ‘The Pink Mirror’ and ‘Yours Emotionally’, has started organizing KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival. But it has already transformed into an important annual event in Mumbai’s cultural calendar. Not just Mumbaikars, the festival receives audience from other cities as well. People like Manas Modi, a Bangalore resident, will be traveling to Mumbai this week to attend the festival. “I will be reaching Mumbai on Friday evening so that I can at least catch the films screened on Saturday and Sunday.”

This sort of euphoria is heartening to see since it signifies the willingness of the people to invest time and effort for LGBT events in India, and also the fact that such events are earning as much visibility and importance as any other mainstream event. Sridhar reveals that a sizable population of straight folks also attend the festival. “Last year, almost 32 percent of the attendees were non-LGBT, comprising of students, film buffs and academicians.“ And there is a valid factor which is making this possible. Sridhar explains, “KASHISH is the first and only LGBT film festival in India to be held in a mainstream theatre and one of the first queer festivals to receive clearance from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. This is enabling us to reach out to large number of audience.”

Sridhar Rangayan, Festival Director of KASHISH Film Festival

For this year’s edition, the organizers have received a whooping 300 submissions; out of which, 132 films from 40 countries are selected for screening. They were also pleasantly surprised to see submissions coming from conservative countries such as Iran, Pakistan, Serbia and Israel. Each year KASHISH honours one country to appreciate and acknowledge efforts made by other countries producing qualitative queer cinema. This year, the focus will be on China where LGBT movies from China will be featured in the ‘Country Focus’ package. Sridhar opines, “Mainstream cinema from China has already made its mark, but a small group of filmmakers are making films on queer themes. These films are often made underground and with great ingenuity. Our efforts at KASHISH this year is to showcase these films and the brave filmmakers.”

Movies from China will be featured in the ‘Country Focus’ package

Since its debut in 2010, KASHISH has become one of the biggest LGBT film festivals in India and South Asia, helping people to open their minds by challenging their beliefs and notions. Sridhar Rangayan understands that as each edition comes by, the benchmark for bringing awareness and entertainment keeps getting higher. “KASHISH is no more just a film festival, but an annual cultural experience, and we hope to live up to it!”

 

KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival is scheduled to be held on May 22-26, 2013 at Cinemax Versova in Andheri West and at Alliance Francaise de Bombay, Theosophy Hall, 40 New Marine Lines - Churchgate from May 23-25, 2013.

For complete schedule of the festival, click here.

To check out the ten not to be missed films of KASHISH 2013, click here.
For information on the films featured in 'Country Focus', click here

For complete list on insightful discussions and conversations apart from the film screenings, click here.

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Homosexuality in 'Bombay Talkies' - 2 Steps Forward, 1 Step Backward

Karan Johar’s segment in ‘Bombay Talkies’ - Ajeeb Dastaan Hain Yeh, seemed to offer promising image overhaul on gays, trying to steer away from the conventional portrayal widely embraced by the storytellers of Bollywood. For once, the gay character is not flamboyant, limp-wristed or feminine. Rather, he is a confident young man, not ashamed of his sexuality. The opening scene shows him barging to the bedroom where his father (who had banished him from the house for being gay) is sleeping and pulling him out of the bed and screaming at him, “Main chhakaa nahi hoon! Main homosexual hoon! Naa chhakka hona galat hai, na homosexual!” (I am not an eunuch! I am a homosexual! Neither it is wrong to be an eunuch, nor to be a homosexual!) And later when he reveals himself to his female colleague that he is gay, she doesn't appear shocked - the reason being, “Gay ho, terrorist nahi.” (You are gay, not a terrorist.) The segment also features a lip-lock between two men, which is considered as a daring and progressive attempt.

A still from Bombay Talkies - Ajeeb Dastaan Hain Yeh

It is for these illustrations the gay community and the Bollywood critics are applauding Karan for sensitively handling the angle of homosexuality. But if you analyze carefully, the story has far-reaching dangerous repercussions because it plays with the idea of trust. When it shows that the gay guy is having no boundaries by hitting on his female colleague’s husband, it sends out the message that one needs to be careful when befriending gays. And sadly, it tries to seed homophobia among the one group whom gay men have always felt comfortable opening up to – the women; it warns them gay men could be potential boyfriend/husband stealers and home-wreckers, so better stay away from them.

A still from Bombay Talkies - Ajeeb Dastaan Hain Yeh

Bollywood has used homosexuality in innumerable ways – to add laughter, to induce shock value, to bring tragedy. But rarely has anyone attempted to empathize with them. What is this need to depend on showcasing us as a group who is defective or deviant in one form or the other? This is a group which is suffering not because they are defective, not because they are unnatural, not because they are abnormal; but only because the society is prejudiced due to the various misconceptions surrounding them - movies being a great vehicle for propagating such delusions. 

If a certain religion or community or caste is shown in a bad light in our movies, the respective groups are quick to demand the director to remove the disgracing dialogues or scenes. But in this case, the gay community themselves get divided in their opinions because some just see the “outer picture”; few care to analyze the long-run implications. The movie is a cleverly camouflaged attempt to seed homophobia. When I posted about Dostana years ago on the gross characterization of homosexuality, there were many who tried to make me see why it was the best thing that has happened for Indian gays. Funny, now I see many views on how Karan Johar has redeemed himself, while admitting Dostana indeed had badly depicted gays and how this was a wonderful change from him. Majority of the Bollywood outings, such as this one, brings out the slant that one is not entitled to lead a happy satisfied and committed life if he is gay, unlike how straights receive a happy ending for their love stories.

A still from Bombay Talkies - Ajeeb Dastaan Hain Yeh

One can argue that Bollywood is in an experimental phase where straight relationships are also used for bringing out the various unconventional themes, so why not on homosexuality? Again, one needs to understand we are talking about a minority group who is struggling to find acceptance and at the receiving end of severe homophobia. Even Bollywood played safe while narrating love stories of heroes and heroines, where lip-locks were replaced by birds and flowers. It had invested sufficient period in exploring the plethoric emotions of love before plunging into the more sexually visible forms. We have Mughal-E-Azam, Devdas, Aradhna, Kagaz Ke Phool and so many countless movies immortalizing love, but what do we have for depicting homosexual relations apart from the scenes of sex and lust?

A still from Bombay Talkies - Ajeeb Dastaan Hain Yeh

Karan Johar’s story is two steps forward in terms of how mainstream actors are now daring enough to take up homosexual roles and how censor board didn't feel the need to chop out the gay kiss, but it is a step backward in terms of bringing positive representation for a highly marginalized community.

For the uninitiated: 'Bombay Talkies' is a 2013 Indian anthology film consisting of four short films, directed by Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar and Karan Johar. The film was released on May 3, 2013, coinciding with and celebrating the centenary year of Indian cinema.

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