Talking Out of the Closet

When filmmaker Tarun Mansukhani decided to make Dostana II,his mother asked him “Are you gay?”,to which he smiled and patted her hand. He is not,but the formula that made a box-office splash is too good to pass up for a sequel — even though critics will hand out brownie points only if he dares talk about homosexuality,without a nudge-nudge,wink-wink plot about pretend-gay men. Actor Rajit Kapur,who will play the real thing — a gay poet — in Deepti Naval’s yet-to-be-released film Do Paise Ki Dhoop,Chaar Aane Ki Baarish,says,“I have played gay roles in parallel films before. But this is a mainstream role,and I took my time to reach here.”

Images of US President Barack Obama kissing Chinese president Hu Jintao,and Pope Benedict XVI in a liplock with Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed el-Tayeb,the Imam of Cairo’s al-Azhar mosque,in Benetton’s controversial Unhate campaign may have ruffled feathers but it’s also being celebrated on Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Intersex (LGBTI) websites like Queerty and Gayzee.

Today,at Rock for Rights,a concert hosted by Engendered,the New York-based transnational arts and human rights organisation in collaboration with Queer Delhi,performers will include singers Rekha Bharadwaj and Papon Angaraag Mahanta,perhaps the first time that mainstream Indian musicians will lend their voice to such a cause.

Whether it is photography,cinema,visual art,theatre or music,the issue of gender plurality and marginalised sexualities is being spoken about today from several positions,some less serious than the others. What has led to the mainstreaming of what was largely an underground movement? Is it the power of the pink rupee? Or do images of cross-dressing and homosexuality always get the easy laughs?

Let’s start with words. Queer seems to be preferred to the alphabet soup of LGBTI,because,“it has came to mean opposition of all forms of discrimination,and being queer has come to mean fighting oppression,homophobia,racism,misogyny,and the bigotry of religious hypocrites on an everyday level,” says Arvind Narrain,whose has authored three books on the subject. This definition of queer,opens out the category of LGBTI beyond the parameters of “acting” and “being” queer to enfold the spheres of thinking and supporting as well. It makes the discussion move out of academic circles and become a palpable energy in the arts.

Filmmaker Onir says he is glad that the discussion is moving beyond talking to the converted. “When I made My Brother Nikhil (2005),I was very conscious about not titling it “My Lover Nikhil”. It is pitched from Juhi’s (Chawla) point of view and it immediately broadens the reach of my film and its audience. In I Am (2010),the idea was to address larger issues of human rights — of single motherhood,Muslim and gay identity. Even though I am proud to own the gay identity,I don’t see why I have to be branded as a ‘gay filmmaker’.” Onir recently screened I Am in Jharkhand,where he faced quite a few homophobic questions from the audience. “It is important to hear them out and speak to them,” he says.

Advertising reflects the change,in several fleeting references to transgender,gay and even butch-lesbian identities. For instance,the recent Volkswagen ad has a man dressed as a woman to verify the price and perks of the new Vento and Polo models. In a Virgin Mobile ad,a girl pretends that the boy she is talking to is gay,so she can go out with him,without her parents getting “protective”. And in a Coke ad,Imran Khan chases a boy who turns out to be a girl for a bottle of Coke. “Advertising is never bold enough to break new ground on its own. Only recently it has got the moral courage to be a harbinger of social change,one way of saying we are modern and metrosexual and tolerant of difference,” says adman Prahlad Kakkar.

Filmmaker Sridhar Rangayan,whose films Gulabi Aaina and Yours Emotionally,broke new ground in their realistic portrayal of the largely closeted Indian gay community,is not impressed with the candyfloss quality of change. “I’m waiting for the day when a mainstream Bollywood film by a heterosexual director has a character who ‘just happens’ to be gay,who is neither caricatured nor homophobic,” he says.

The “queer” pose has been used creatively by pioneers like photographer Sunil Gupta or Tejal Shah. Artists like Abir Karmakar,Chopra and Mansi Bhatt have also opened up the field by stepping outside their ascribed,socially-viewed gender.

Karmakar has presented the viewer with images of hairy male torsos,delicately decorated with mehndi,and photorealist paintings of him dressed both as a man and a woman.

Bhatt poses with the Bombay Boys (2006) wearing a goatee and her breasts flattened. The image is a pun on Bose Krishnamachari’s exhibition of contemporary male artists. She Photoshopped herself into the invite of the show as a man. It takes some hard-gazing to realise she is not a “real” man. “My intention was to charge the male bastion,the ‘boys club’ and show them that I can pass off as one of them. When I perform an identity,I am usually looking to surprise and discover myself more than anyone else,” says Bhatt,who is rather noncommittal about a queer reading of her work,even though she also performed a gender switch in her 2010 work Three Cool Guys. Even Chopra believes that his gender performance has winder ramifications than just queer identity politics: “Yog Raj Chitrakar has many faces: explorer,cartographer,conqueror,prisoner of war,artist,romantic,dandy and queen. So performing as the queen is only one aspect of it,” he says.

For many,in these tiny references lie the evidence of the mainstreaming of alternative sexual identities. But “for the dialogue to move beyond a superficial level,” says art historian and critic Shivaji Panikkar,“LGBTI people in the closet have to come out and stand by their speeches and art.

Personal and artistic choices might not always converge. Vidisha Saini,who positions herself as a queer-friendly photographer,says, “I have many gay male friends and I feel comfortable in their company,which is why I began a photo-documentary of their lives.” She adds with a smile: “I would not,however,know how to react if a woman hit on me.”