queering

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The Hindi Cinema has a long distance to cover when it comes to the poignant or nuanced portrayal of sexual minorities. Sexual minorities have always been at the margins in terms of their representation in the Hindi film industry. The issue of homosexuality has always been mocked upon or treated in the most insensitive way one can imagine in Hindi films. Ruth Vanita argues that though there is history of same sex male bonding in Hindi films but issue related to homosexuality have not been treated explicitly and properly in the films. Recently, many parallel film makers have tried to portray the realist aspects of Queer sexuality but the mainstream Hindi cinema still lags behind. The mainstream cinema seems to side line queer sexuality by making fun of it or making it an object of disgust. Ruth Vanita’s queer reading of Hindi cinema shows that same-sex male bonding has evidently existed in Hindi films. Mainstream actors singing songs like, “yeh dosti hum nhi chhodenge. Todenge dum magar tera saath na chhodenge” and “yaari hai imaan mera yaar meri zindagi” are explicitly hinting at the same-sex bond that seems unbreakable. For a long time Bollywood has believed in creating a picture of relationships that exist only in black or white, the concept of grey has either been absent or misrepresented.
This paper probes in the popular Hindi cinema and looks at the misrepresentation of homosexuals and also examines the popular stereotypes of homosexuals in Hindi cinema. The deliberate attempt to portray homosexuals with certain assigned behaviour leads to the augmentation of homophobia among the masses. Such misrepresentation also raises questions regarding the equality of queer in society. The paper looks at the popular stereotypes of hom...

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...hant through which the film “pathologises the so called sexual deviancy of its character Tanya and queer sexualities is conceptualised as essentially being ‘abnormal’ and mentally unstable”. In the end, Tanya has to die because the only the heterosexual couple could meet. She is not only lesbian but she is also abnormal and evil. Many critics criticized the film for its portrayal of lesbianism as “‘unnatural’—as ‘abnormal’…people who must die at the end of the film, so that they are aptly punished for their unnatural existence."
Having said so there have been sensitive portrayals of queer sexuality in Hindi Cinema such as; Onir’s My Brother…Nikhil (2005) and I am (2010), Karan Johar’s Bombay Talkies (2013) etc. which deal explicitly with same sex. Moreover, there are films like Rules: Pyaar ka Superhit Formula (2005) which talks sensitively about gay relationships.

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