Images

Indian movie Aligarh shines rare light on homophobia

Indian movie Aligarh shines rare light on homophobia

“I hope Aligarh will poke people’s conscience and make them look at their own prejudices,” said director Hansal Mehta
31 Oct, 2015

MUMBAI: A rare Bollywood movie tackling homophobia gets its Indian premiere on Friday, with the filmmakers hoping it will help change attitudes in the conservative country where homosexuality is illegal.

Aligarh is based on a true story about a university professor who was suspended from his post after a television news crew filmed him having sex with a rickshaw puller in an undercover sting operation.

“The film deals with a human story about a man isolated by his peers for a choice that should have been his own,” the film’s director, Hansal Mehta, explained to AFP.

“I hope Aligarh will poke people’s conscience and make them look at their own prejudices,” he added.

Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras, then 64, was teaching at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh in February 2010 when his private life made news headlines.

Siras, who was also an award-winning poet, was suspended and briefly fought to be reinstated, but was found dead in his apartment in suspicious circumstances two months later.

Traces of poison were discovered in his body and police initially suspected suicide, but they later made several arrests, although no one was convicted and the case was ultimately dropped.

Media reports at the time alleged the university had ordered the sting to hound Siras out. AMU denied it was involved.

Aligarh, which stars Manoj Bajpayee as Siras and Rajkummar Rao as a journalist who befriends him, opens the 17th edition of the Mumbai Film Festival after showings in London and South Korea’s Busan.

Censor hurdle to come

The Hindi-language movie is unusual in that it shines a spotlight on attitudes towards homosexuals in socially-conservative India where Bollywood movies often ridicule gay characters and portray them as being extremely camp.

“Very few films tackle the subject head on,” the writer and editor of Aligarh, said Apurva Asrani.

“Either they pussyfoot around it, insinuating a character’s sexuality but never quite confronting it, or make a mockery of it,” he added.

The film is due for general release in India early next year, but before it hits screens nationwide the film must pass India’s notoriously strict censor board.

The hounding of Siras came during a brief period in Indian history when homosexuality was actually legal.

The Delhi High Court had decriminalised the colonial-era ban on homosexuality in 2009, only for the Supreme Court to restore it in 2013, stunning rights campaigners and the gay and lesbian community.

“The law was actually in favour of same sex. In spite of this, a 64-year-old scholar was harangued and shamed till his death,” said Asrani.

“Can you imagine the state of Siras in today’s context? Where does a man go for justice? And what of all those people who came out in 2009? Can they go back into hiding now?” he added.

Anyone found guilty of same-sex activity can face life imprisonment or up to 10 years in jail and a fine under the controversial Section 377 of India’s penal code.

Right to privacy

Although prosecutions have been rare, the gay community says it faces significant discrimination as well as harassment and blackmail from police in India.

Surveys show broad disapproval of homosexuality in India, forcing many gay men and women to live double lives.

“The law and society’s attitudes reinforce each other in a negative way,” said Nitin Karani, a Mumbai-based gay rights activist.

“If you live in a small town you have few choices to escape from the brunt of being harassed by the police, or society, or even your own family members.

“Hopefully the film will put a spotlight on Section 377,” he added.

Asrani said Aligarh was as much about an individual’s right to privacy as it is about treating everybody the same.

“A man who wishes to keep his sexual identity concealed has every right to do so,” he said.

“We must understand that the brave activists and gay men who have come out have done so based on their own internal reserves of courage, of their support structures, environment, etc.”

Aligarh must still pass India’s censor board before its general release.

Earlier this year the Central Board of Film Certification muted the word “lesbian” from a Hindi language film and blocked the release of Fifty Shades of Grey.

But Asrani remains unperturbed.

“Aligarh is an honest film. There is no effort to titillate or provoke,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play

Comments

d.Goel Oct 31, 2015 12:57pm
One can commiserate with people who are homosexual, if this is a deviant sexual disposition congenitally. however, avant garde Film makers like the one of latest cinema Aligarh ,seem to portray the deviants as person a cultural hero. To sane public such eulogy may look highly objectionable. D.Goel
Recommend
Satt Oct 31, 2015 01:25pm
It's because of situation in the country not because of prejudice Indians have towards homosexuality if they would had why would Delhi High court have lifted the law against homosexuality.
Recommend
AW Oct 31, 2015 01:39pm
Censor boards need to be outlawed and shut down in both India and Pakistan. Instead a rating board with no power to censor or ban movies needs to be instituted for the purpose of rating movies for the benefit of the public as it is done in the United States. Ratings movie shall warn the public, so that people can make informed choices in terms of either watching the specific movie or vice versa. Censoring movies eliminates presentation and discussion of subjects which are taboo in the society even though those subjects are reality in a given society and discussion on them is essential for the purpose of dealing with social taboos and for the sake of ensuring freedom of expression to eventually protect individual freedoms and social development. Censoring constitutes imposition of the made-up and self-righteous moral standards by the government or of the select group of the elite on society at large which is wrong, manipulative and surely undemocratic
Recommend
Ajay vikram Singh Oct 31, 2015 04:45pm
I will be very honest. I otherwise, consider myself quite liberal, almost enlightened. But somehow, i have never made peace with this phenomenon of homosexuality. I dont hate them, neither i wish any harm to them. But, ideally speaking, i wish all world to be hetrosexual. I would never want my son to grow up and tell me that dad, i am a homosexual. That will break my heart completely.
Recommend
Sreenivasa Rajiv Oct 31, 2015 05:08pm
Governments shouldn't interfere on basic rights of human. Being gay or Lesbian or straight is their personal choice, it is natural. It is weird that even in this age of technology, people still discriminate against other people by their sexuality. India is undergoing some rapid cultural changes. In next couple of years, when next generation comes to dominance, I am pretty sure. LGBT will be decriminalised and accepted as normal. Secular India is not only for religious minorities. India is for everyone. jai ho
Recommend
Sreenivasa Rajiv Oct 31, 2015 05:15pm
Among 100 people on Earth, 20 are left-handed, 18 are twins, 10 are blond, 2 are blue colored iris. Those are perfectly normal. But 12 are LGBT.
Recommend
Rohit Dwiwedi Oct 31, 2015 06:07pm
It is high time India should drop the colonial rule and accept same sex relationships. Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras (1948 – April 8, 2010) was an Indian linguist and author. He was a professor at the Aligarh Muslim University specializing in Marathi literature and head of the Department of Modern Indian Languages. After school in Nagpur Siras studied psychology and linguistics at Nagpur University in India. In 1985 he got his doctorate in Marathi and a master's in psychology. He finished university studies and became a professor at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in 1998. He wrote several short stories in the Marathi In 2002 he received the literary award from Maharashtra Sahitya Parishad for "Paya Khalchi Hirawal" (Grass under my feet). Siras suffered from fits at a young age and was advised against marriage. When considered cured of the condition later in life he was married. The marriage lasted for nearly 20 years but ended in divorce after a long separation.
Recommend
khurram Oct 31, 2015 07:02pm
Homosexuality is not a natural trait. It is an acquired trait and a human choice. There is no scientific proof what so ever of any "homosexual" gene or any such characteristic. Since this is a human choice, one practicing is fully responsible for it. Cultures like India and Pakistan consider this as physically and morally wrong . Religions like Islam has great punishment for such a devient behaviour and is condemned and any effort in portraying such behaviour in favorable terms is highly objectionable.
Recommend
Ajay vikram Singh Oct 31, 2015 07:04pm
Homosexual is a general term. But the causes behind it are varied. Some people are born trans-sexual. That mean, they are born in a male or female body, but have hormones suited for opposite gender. These people are helpless and they should be helped with their sexuality. Now science has reached a level, where they can change their gender physically as well, and be at peace. There is another category of people, who are psychologically conditioned to be homosexuals. Somewhere, while growing up, something happened, and they tend to become homosexuals. Again, they have been victims to their circumstances, and i would like to help them. accept them. But there are people, who are homosexuals, out of sheer irresponsible behavior. That is deviant, negative and anti-social. These people dont care about even the basic of human life. These poeple should be helped in a different way, by educating them of right and wrong. These people have lost it completely. A shame, indeed.
Recommend
Tryst Oct 31, 2015 07:41pm
@Ajay vikram Singh Your honesty is appreciated. You are entitled to your view that you wish the world was filled with heterosexuals - just as homosexuals are entitled to their opinions. As long as all sides agree to disagree, agreeably, there is no problem. You could attempt to convince homosexuals to change their orientation by the strength of your convictions (maybe by writing and speaking out against the practice), not by your strength and that of other like minded people.
Recommend
Atif Khan Oct 31, 2015 09:01pm
@Ajay vikram Singh Agreed. Nicely and correctly broken down
Recommend
schal Oct 31, 2015 09:17pm
@d.Goel Deviant for us. The mate choice is a personal thing. Homosexuals are genetically wired to think their choice is the best even if the majority feels it is deviant. To be honest about it and face the world has not been easy, in fact, troublesome for the most. The spirit behind this courage is nothing less than heroic.
Recommend
Mumbaikar Nov 01, 2015 12:00am
India is not conversative, I didnt read beyond that, tbh. If there is any country in Asia that will legalise homosexuality in the next 10 years, its India.
Recommend
Siddhartha Nov 01, 2015 03:13am
Good luck Asrani. Good luck with Aligarh. The story needs to be told.
Recommend
Jo Nov 01, 2015 03:19am
The number of closet professors at Pakistan's leading universities will shock. Ask the students you will be shocked
Recommend
sudhir Nov 01, 2015 06:37am
@AW Agree. This is one of the most constructive suggestions I have come across.
Recommend
Gaurav Arya Nov 02, 2015 09:40am
As long as Modi does not make it compulsory, I have no problems with homosexuality. Each to his own.
Recommend
Khan Saab Nov 03, 2015 08:11pm
@Sreenivasa Rajiv Where did you come up with this stats?
Recommend
Khan Saab Nov 03, 2015 08:19pm
@Ajay vikram Singh Here I disagree with you. Live and let live.
Recommend
Ajay vikram Singh Nov 04, 2015 05:47am
@Khan Saab - Khan Sahab, i agree. Live and let live. But educate without hurting anyone. Its our moral duty to educate people.
Recommend