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Kapoor and Sons might just be a game changer for gay men in India. Here's how

In his second Indian film Fawad Khan plays a gay man, but it's not what you'd expect.
20 Mar, 2016

If you were keeping close tabs on publicity surrounding just-released Bollywood flick Kapoor and Sons, you'll know this: several months ago it was rumoured that resident heartthrob Fawad Khan was going to play a gay character in the film.

Without any official comment the rumour quickly lost traction... only to be confirmed as the film released across India and beyond on March 18, making clear that Fawad Khan's character is in fact gay.

Kapoor and Sons is more family saga than romantic drama, which means Fawad's character's sexual orientation is a sub-plot rather than the film's main event.

Still, it's something of a moment for Indian cinema.

Kapoor and Sons is about a family of five that equal parts loves and hates each other.

Rahul and Arjun are brothers living on opposite sides of the world. Played by Fawad Khan, Rahul is a successful novelist in London and Arjun is a bartender and aspiring novelist in New Jersey.

There are secrets and grievances hidden behind this happy-family facade
There are secrets and grievances hidden behind this happy-family facade

The film sees the brothers thrust back into family life when their beloved grandfather suffers a heart attack. Rahul and Arjun return to India to find their parents on opposing sides of a battle for resources and affection and unwittingly get sucked into toxic family dynamics that position Rahul as the favoured son and Arjun as the no-good trouble maker. There's a love triangle and plenty of subterfuge too: Tia, played by Alia Bhatt, kisses Rahul but finds herself falling for Arjun.

In Kapoor and Sons people aren't really what they appear to be, and the film devotes much its screen time to unraveling each character's secret life and store of long-held grievances. And that's where Rahul's sexual orientation becomes important.


When Rahul's mother discovers he's gay she breaks down and wonders what she's done to deserve a son 'like him.' This is an opportunity to push an intelligent message and Kapoor and Sons seizes it.


A key scene sees Rahul's mother Sunita confront him about pictures she's seen on his laptop, pictures that make clear his partner in London is a man.

Rahul has led the family to believe he's been involved with a foreign woman when really he's been using the geographical distance between himself and his parents to fully inhabit his identity as a gay man. Though she's previously been shown to be fairly progressive, Sunita breaks down when she realises Rahul is gay. She accuses him of lying and wonders what she's done to deserve a son like him.

It's an all-too-real tableau that many gay men in South Asia are forced to enact.

In the absence of informed, non-judgemental conversations about male sexuality in mainstream Indian media and in the home it's plausible that gay men of Indian origin abroad find it easier to keep questions of marriage at bay with vague mentions of entanglements with foreign women rather than with open admissions of gayness.

Add to this the state of India's legislation on homosexuality (an act that sought to decriminalise homosexuality was overturned by the Supreme Court and now hangs in limbo) and you can understand some of the pressures and prejudices gay men and the LGBT community as a whole face in India.


Fawad plays a gay man minus the cliched camp that heteronormative Bollywood typically saddles gay characters with. The effect is that Kapoor and Sons places Rahul's personhood before his sexual orientation, allowing him the complexity films so often deny non-mainstream characters.


Against these odds, can Fawad Khan's portrayal of Rahul really impact how a movie-going Indian audience views gay men?

It might just. Though several Indian films before Kapoor and Sons have featured gay characters - notable names include Deepa Mehta's Fire, Hansal Mehta's Aligarh and Onir's My Brother Nikhil - they've mostly been viewed as art films or niche cinema and have had a limited audience.

In contrast Kapoor and Sons is an aspiring blockbuster and its sheer reach could potentially 'normalise' gay men by bringing gay characters into mainstream conversations in a way indie flicks just can't.

Fawad's character Rahul is not a cliche.
Fawad's character Rahul is not a cliche.

Add to this the fact that Fawad plays a gay man minus the cliched camp that heteronormative Bollywood typically saddles gay characters with (remember Abhishek Bachan's exaggerated flamboyance in a dance number in Bol Bachchan?) and you might get a general audience to arrive at a point of great enlightenment: gay men! They're just like us! They're not always affected or bitchy or uniformly libidinous or all about the drama (though they might be sometimes, and that's ok too), they're complex individuals wrestling with multiple demands on their time and emotional capacity like we all are.

Rahul -- responsible, mature, artistically stymied but still hopeful -- embodies this. The fact of his orientation is withheld from us until quite late in the movie which has the effect of placing his personhood before his sexual preferences. In this way Kapoor and Sons' writers allow Rahul the complexity films so often deny non-mainstream characters, making clear that gay men in India are people first; they're writers and artists and bankers and entrepreneurs with hopes and fears and ambitions, like anybody else, they resist categorization.


Kapoor and Sons isn't pitch-perfect. The film makes a few mistakes, is cautious, takes baby steps. In fact, I can't recall the word 'gay' being mentioned at all in Rahul's and Sunita's confrontation. But it is a start.


In fact, this point is very deliberately brought home when Rahul makes clear to his mother that being gay is as much a part of him as his literary inclinations -- it's his identity, not a fad or choice or a consequence of living abroad.

And of course there's Fawad Khan's own star power and persona.

He's the hottest ticket in Bollywood right now, where he's hit the right notes in terms of sex appeal, mystique and refinement. He's splashed across a boggling array of magazine covers, he's known to make women go weak in the knees. Fawad Khan playing a gay man is a game changer not only because his star power will draw attention to the difficult negotiations of being a gay man. What's really key in his accepting the role is that Kapoor and Sons challenges notions of 'ideal' masculinity by casting a popular sex symbol as a gay man.

It raises questions that need to be asked and debated right now, especially in the wake of well-known instances of sexual violence in India. Questions like: what does it mean to be an Indian man? How do you define maleness in India, and can this definition include fluid sexuality? Is manliness in India directly related straightness, and how does that effect us all?

Kapoor and Sons isn't pitch-perfect. The film makes a few mistakes, is cautious, takes baby steps. In fact, I can't recall the word 'gay' being mentioned at all in Rahul's and Sunita's confrontation. When Rahul finally does come out to his family he prefers to say: "I've never liked women and I'm never going to like women [in that way]."

But it's a start, and it's exciting to imagine which cinema stereotypes the film's writers -- and it's star, Fawad Khan -- will overturn next.

Comments

Arpan Mar 20, 2016 11:44am
Finally Indian cinema showing some maturity! A well written article.
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Calypso Mar 20, 2016 12:44pm
Very interessting article. I wonder, how long it would take in Pakistan to face such "Taboo" subjects?
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Shahin A. Hossain Mar 20, 2016 01:21pm
Kapoor and Sons may not be a ganechanger in the cultural setting of India culture is not changed overnight... Rather the audieneces will get disturbed. PR of the movie is trying hard to make the movie float on the sarface of peoples consciousness.... But reality this is not an 'aspiring blockbaster' but a flop one....
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Agha Mar 20, 2016 01:24pm
I salute you Fawad Khan for taking a role so taboo in muslim countries being a muslim yourself.
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Satt Mar 20, 2016 01:39pm
Wow great story by Fawad Khan,winds of change will come to India from Pakistan side.
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Syed Irfan Ali Mar 20, 2016 02:43pm
Superb review.
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Syed Mar 20, 2016 02:58pm
Hats off to Fawad for doing this ! Thank you for an unbiased portrayal !
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Shaan Mar 20, 2016 03:57pm
Kudos to Fawad Khan for taking on this role and showing to the indo-pak community that being gay is normal. God created us all equal and sexual orientation is one aspect of gay existence. We are your sons and brothers just like your straight ones. Shaan, San Diego
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Sunil Mar 20, 2016 05:34pm
I saw the movie yesterday , liked Fawad Acting I think he is better then Ali Zafar in acting(personal thought). Not that Ali is bad but I think he was a bit lost in the movie with Govinda and Ranveer
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Umber Mar 20, 2016 08:55pm
Good job Fawad
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sanjay Mar 20, 2016 09:04pm
Fawad was best suited for the role!!!!
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Abduljabbar Mar 20, 2016 09:13pm
Seen Kapoor and sons yesterday. Great story full of arguments, tension in family. W/ful direction. fawad proves his star power with excellent performance.
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Kimi Mar 20, 2016 09:45pm
Did you left pk for this ??? Wrong choice mate
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U Mar 21, 2016 01:00am
Highly disappointed with Fawad for his choice of role of a gay man. He shouldn't have participated in this pro-gay propaganda machine that the Indian cinema is fast becoming.
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India Mar 21, 2016 02:26am
I agree gr8 work by all the actors and director of the movie. Watched it in UK, the cinema was packed by both Indian and Pakistani people who seem to be engrossed during the full length of the movie. Great work by Fawad, he excelled...
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Devi Mar 21, 2016 04:07am
@ SATT Story and direction is not by Fawad Khan. When will change come to Pakistan!? Congratulations to Fawad on his sensitive portrayal.
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Vijay Mar 21, 2016 06:59am
Though Homosexuality is a crime in India the BJP Government is not prosecuting gays is due to the fear of backlash from west particularly US and UK. The BJP Government is under tremendous pressure from the Indian business lobby, the big donors of BJP, to decriminalize Homosexuality.
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Ali Mar 21, 2016 08:22am
@Calypso might I remind you bro that Fawad is the most loved male actor in Pakistan and probably the most famous too. The fact that he took up this role shows that Pak too has started confronting this Taboo:) also in all honesty none of these other bollywood dynasty heart throbs would have taken this role just to be safe.
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Khuram Nisar Mar 21, 2016 09:36am
@Calypso Have you watched Pakistani movie "BOL"? It was released in 2011. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bol_(film)
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Awais Mar 21, 2016 10:50am
@Calypso end of time long !!
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Shaan Mar 22, 2016 08:58am
I am surprised so few comments on this topic considering huge fan following of Fawad. Is it that Pakistani public is still uncomfortable with the discussion of homosexuality ? It has been with us since beginning of man kind and part of our humanity. Kudos to Fawad for taking on this assignment and not caring about ratings or future assignments. As recently as early 80's, actors in Hollywood were reluctant to sign on gay roles. Thanks, Fawad for paving the way for Indo-pak cinema to bring forward "stuff" that is present in every household in the Indian subcontinent also.
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chenab Mar 23, 2016 01:54am
If you watch Pakistani dramas you will realize they grapple with and portray plenty of uncomfortable issues.
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chenab Mar 23, 2016 02:24am
It is intrepid indeed of Fawad to take on this role at a stage when he is fairly new to Indian cinema. It is true that his popularity far exceeds his total screen time in this profession and his celebrity will, I truly hope, go a long way in bringing positive attention to and acceptance of homosexuality- perhaps it will be successful in altering ingrained stereotypes and compel if not shame us into pressing the reset button on homophobia.
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Ani Dutta Mar 23, 2016 12:52pm
"Add to this the fact that Fawad plays a gay man minus the cliched camp that heteronormative Bollywood typically saddles gay characters with... and you might get a general audience to arrive at a point of great enlightenment: gay men! They're just like us!" So basically the exit out of negative depictions of queer / gay femininity is masculinization = normalization (just like us!! yay!!) = acceptance. So where does that leave queer/gay/trans people who can't fit into the "just like us" mould?
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