Screen Test

“I had expected the film to be much worse. My friends had seen it earlier and warned me. However,I didn’t find it so bad though politically,it does not make the cut,” says Sophie Parisse,a Mumbai-based independent film curator. Student Ketki Dyson’s view on the film was more scathing. “No doubt,the women in the film are hot. But the story didn’t make me think. The film could have been called ‘I can’t think’,” she jokes.

Shruti,a member of the Mumbai-based queer feminist group LABIA,puts the blame on actors who are straight in real life not being so convincing as lesbians. “There was no chemistry. I wish they had taken a lesson from the L Word,an American sitcom that really sizzles,” she says.

Though the film lacked authenticity,the consensus among the queer group favoured such ‘delicate’ subjects featuring in the mainstream entertainment. “It was fun to go and see this film with a big group of dykes in a public theatre,” says Amrita Sharma,a researcher working on a labour rights project. “I was also relieved to see the lesbians were not psychotic and did not die,” adds Gouri Sheth comparing the film with Karan Razdan’s Girlfriend.

The world of cinema has come a long way since Fire,which faced censure in 2001. Post Fire,there was a rash of mainstream dramas showcasing same sex desire-at times bordering on being sleazy,funny and homophobic. Dostana parodied John Abraham and Abhishek Bachchan as straight men faking to be gay. Most recently in Kaminey,Charlie (Shahid Kapoor) and Mikhail (Chandan Roy Sanyal) crackled in what could be called a gay subtext. The grapevine has it that,Wake Up Sid also has a brief,but significant,flirtation with a gay character.

“It could be that people are opening up. But one has to note that Sarif’s film is perceived as foreign while the Hindi film

industry has only parodied the gay characters,” says Shruti. Vikram of Gay Bombay believes otherwise. “Today film directors feel they have more freedom to reflect themes which have existed for years. At least in metros,there is more visibility and acceptance,” he says.