Film makes LGBTQIA+ community see red
Kolkata: Indraadip Das Gupta's 'Grihapravesh' is stuck in the middle of a controversy having outraged a section of the city's LGBTQIA+ community for queer erasure and depiction of guilt-bearing queer identity.
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Released in the Pride Month, the film has garnered good footfall. Yet, a section of the queer community has flagged off the irresponsibility of the maker for dedicating it to Rituparno Ghosh who they insist never showed women being "victims" of closet homosexuals.
Das Gupta's film, starring Subhasree Ganguly, Jeetu Kamal, Kaushik Ganguly, Sohini Sarkar and Suprovo Thakur, released last Friday. Kaustav Bakshi, professor in English in JU and author of "Queer Studies: Texts, Contexts, Praxis', told TOI that his student, Souhardyo Pramanik, had referred to the film saying it "needs to be bashed".
"Souhardyo, who did a course in Queer Studies, was alarmed that such a film has been made and dedicated to Rituparno.
Rituparno made three films which were identified as queer but he was creating the ground for years. His most queer film was 'Bariwali'. So were 'Chokher Bali', 'Antarmahal' and 'Raincoat'. But none of these are identified overtly as queer apart from 'Memories in March', 'Chitrangada' and 'Arekti Premer Golpo'.
Ritu had an understanding of queer as a way of life and not as a means of sexual expression only. Indraadip might think he has made a homophilic film but a queer viewer will find problematic nuances in it," Bakshi said.
Bakshi further pointed out that Rituparno made films when "queer" had not become a "thing" in India as it is today. 'Grihapravesh', Bakshi said, is more of a "premeditated film". Bakshi believes Das Gupta's film should have raised this question: Is a queer person marrying another person of the opposite sex, an act of cheating or is it an issue of bisexuality which is barely addressed in society? "The woman and the two men are victims of heteropatriarchy and not of each other.
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It's problematic that the film missed that point and is rather making two men seem like grey characters," Bakshi said.
Koyel Ghosh, managing trustee of Sappho For Equality, told TOI that the film suffers from "an intentional queer erasure". "Many queer and transpersons are forced to marry without consent due to pressure from the natal family. This pressure could be of various types, including physical torture, corrective rape, fear of eviction, mobility restriction to name a few.
The notion that once queer and transpersons are married off they immediately are cured of their homesexuality is the fundamental reason why such coercive practices are done.
To say that Meghdut (Jeetu Kamal) might have a possibility of falling for Titli (Subhasree) again reinstates that same belief. However, this notion is futile and further stigmatizes a community that is already subjected to bullying and harassment," Ghosh said.
The entire narrative, Ghosh said, is from the perspective of the woman in this case Titli's situation. "It further villainises queer and transpersons whose narratives have been structurally silenced and marginalised," Ghosh added.
The director is unfazed. "I am overwhelmed by the positive reviews from the audience. This includes those beyond the Bengali speaking audience. This film is my tribute to Rituparno Ghosh. More than the box office ticket sales and success, what warms my heart is the chatter around the film. A film like this transcends to the next level when it becomes a talking point in society. I am so pleased to know such a thing has happened with it," Das Gupta said.
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