The Humsafar Trust

Indian gay films screening July 16, 2009

Bombay Dost Sunday High – 19 July – Films

The Sridhar Rangayan Film Fest

Three of Sridhar Rangayan’s award winning films are being screened as a package this Sunday. The director will be present for Q&A.

Gulabi Aaina (2003, 40 mins)

The Pink Mirror pits two Indian drag queens against a gay teenager in a battle to woo a handsome hunk. It’s a clash of the east and west. Who will win? The drag queens, who are expert in the art of seduction with their wit, innuendo and cunning or the young teenager who is saucy, slutty and sly? Underneath the campy humorous exterior, the film is an exploration of the Indian gay landscape and understanding of the deep, humanly tender bondings that exist between drag queens in India who form unique, non-patriarchal families. Using the Bollywood soap idiom of song, dance and drama and for the first time in the Indian drag queens’ very own language, Hindi, the film also explores other veiled issues related to the Indian gay community: the lurking threat of HIV/AIDS. Winner of several awards and screened at 72 international film festivals and over 150 screenings across the world.

imdb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386499

68 Pages (2007, 90mins)

oming from a country like India that is still in denial, where being HIV+ is still a curse, ’68 Pages’ rips open the underbelly of its society to reveal how it stigmatizes and shuns those who are HIV+ or even those who just want to be what they are. Through 68 Pages of a counselors diary, we see the stories of Paayal, a sex worker; Nishit, an ID user; Kiran, a gay man and Umrao, a transsexual bar dancer – their stories of pain and fear, humiliation and rejection – not only by the society, but even by their loved ones. While these stories expose the shallowness of the system, it also offers hope and healing by trying to bring about a better understanding of their fight to live with dignity. The film is a tribute to the human spirit of optimism and survival.

The film has screened at 12 international film festivals and over a 110 screenings across India and other countries and won the Silver Remi award at Worldfest-Houston 2008.

imdb: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1151299/

Yours Emotionally! (2005, 86 mins)
Sridhar Rangayan’s charming, daring film offers a fascinating look inside India’s emerging gay culture. Gay best buds Ravi, a second-generation Sikh, and Paul, an Englishman, live in London, where both are out and proud. They travel together to India, where they find a gay community far more open than they expected, as well as a community still held at bay by the country’s antiquated views on sexuality. Soon after their arrival, Ravi meets and falls in love with handsome, shy Mani. Their love is at first sight and mutual. But Mani is committed to an arranged marriage from which he cannot back out. Their love is doomed. Paul, meanwhile, is a horny dude who discovers that same-sex encounters are easy to find in India. As Ravi’s heart breaks, Paul is having the time of his life. The pair spend some time at a B&B run by Murthy and Anna (Ikhlaq Khan, Ajay Rohilla), a middle-aged gay couple.

As they get to know each other, all four men have life-altering epiphanies. The “boys” learn the true meaning of love from their older counterparts, who in turn learn the meaning of gay pride from the young ones. Lifelong friendships are formed.

imdb: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0818705/

———————————————————————————————-

Time: 4.30 p.m. to 8.30 p.m., with a 15-minute break after the second film (i.e., 68 Pages)

Address: The Humsafar Trust’s Drop-in Centre, 4th floor, Municipal Transit Building (Vakola Municipal Market Building), Near Raheja Point and Vakola Masjid, Santacruz (East), Mumbai.

Space courtesy: The Humsafar Trust.

Note: Programme changes if any will ne announced here and on these channels: The Bombay Dost Wiki OR the Bombay Dost Facebook page OR follow Bombaydost on Twitter OR subscribe to our Google SMS Channel

Note: Programme changes if any will be posted on this site & on:
http://www.bombay-dost.pbwiki.com; http://www.facebook.com/BombayDost; @bombaydost on twitter; Bombay Dost Google SMS channel (http://labs.google.co.in/smschannels/subscribe/BombayDost)