Today marks an important day in the history of India. It’s a year anniversary marking the end of section 377. An important day for the queer community, it is often regarded as ‘Queer Independence Day’ and the preparations for a grand celebration have been going on for a while.
With events like ‘Pride March’ and ‘Freedom Tour’ being organised in various parts of the country, awareness is being spread with the celebration of decriminalising of Section 377 of Indian Penal Code (IPC). Other events like ‘Open Mic’, ‘Queer Fest’ and more are also being conducted across the nation.
While people are coming out to celebrate ‘Queer Freedom’, we bring to you a list of remarkable movies dealing with the subject of LGBTQ, spreading the awareness about equal rights while touching the lives of millions.
Heres a list of movies that highlight the queer stories:
1. Evening Shadow
A Sridhar Rangayan directorial movie explores the beautiful relation shared by a mother and son, set in a South Indian culture. The story takes a turn when the son unveils the truth of his sexual preference, challenging the general notion of gender in society. The movie beautifully portrays the journey of a man stuck between identity and tradition along with the consequences upon the revelation of truth.
2. Kapoor and Sons
A movie by Dharma Production spinning around a small family brings to you some emotional moments and a harsh truth which rips the family apart. The movie delivers an underlying message of acceptance of gender identity and struggles related to it among all the chaos.
3. Darmiyaan: In Between
‘Darmiyaan: In Between’ shows the bitter truth of society where a mother is ashamed of his son being a eunuch. A heartwarming story where you can not stop your tears rolling down has iconic star cast in which Kiron Kher as Zeenat Begum is a star of film industry only to be replaced by Chitra played by Tabu. Losing her fame filled life, Zeenat turns to alcoholism and the son Emmi played by Arif Zakharia comes to the rescue while stuck in his own fight. A beautiful movie by Rajshree production set in British India deals with the sensitive subject of gender identity.
4. Fire
Deepa Mehta has touched many sensitive issues through her movies. Shabana Azmi, Nandita Das starrer ‘Fire’ explores the relationship flourishing between the wives of two brothers. By finding solace in each other, the wives develop love for each other. A movie with some crucial dialogues like “there’s no name to our relationship” and “the relation is a sin in the eyes of man and god”, showcases the journey of a couple in a closed-minded society.
5. Aligarh
A 2015 biographical film by Hansal Mehta revolves around Professor Srinivas Ramchandra Siras of Aligarh University played by Manoj Bajpayee who happens to be a homosexual. A sting operation along with ruining the name also takes up the whole life of Professor. A brilliant movie that shows the fight of a man in society because of his preferences who for once opens up in his life to a journalist Deepu played by Rajkumar Rao. A movie that shows how deeply certain evils and notions of society challenges a man, breaking him down, questioning his whole existence in the world while delivering a message of ‘Come out and Love’.
So what are you waiting for? Change into those sweatpants, put on the rainbow coloured cap and enjoy!
