Its raining queer themed films! Here are two scheduled for release soon and there are more sighting of queer characters cropping up in Bollywood - last week's film '7 1/2 Pheras' (Seven and a half Pheras) apparently has a lesbian subplot. Has anyone seen the film and can they tell us how it develops?
1) Navarasa http://www.navarasathefilm.com/newsroom.html The Present The world seems to be opening up to thirteen-year-old Swetha as she takes her first hesitant step towards adulthood. Till she discovers something, her uncle Gautam is leading a secret life. He transforms into a woman every night, when Swetha confronts him he wants to run away from home and get married to Aravan, at the annual Koovagam festival in a small town in South India , where the people of the third gender ritually re-enact the story of Aravan. Swetha embarks on a journey to find her uncle and bring him back. And in the process she discovers a whole new world, a new culture and new friends, that of the third gender, which she tries to understand. The Myth At one point in the Mahabharata war, a human sacrifice was required and a young warrior named Aravan, son of Arjuna and Nagakanniga was chosen for it. But he had a desire to marry. Since no woman was willing to be a widow just after marriage. Lord Krishna assumed the form of Mohini (the most beautiful woman) and married him, hence the third gender believe to be reincarnates of Lord Krishna. That's the premise for the festival of Koovagam where thousands of the third gender, gather and marry lord Aravan symbolically, and once the statue of Aravan is beheaded they break the bangles and wail dressed in white, the color of widows, and the color of seperation, a unique festival that commences in great joy and ends in sorrow Sivan to make film on transsexuals By: Shradha Sukumaran May 16, 2004 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- In his last feature film as director, Santosh Sivan spoke of a king who renounced violence. Now after Asoka, Sivan is directing again this time, it's a film on transsexuals and instead of Shah Rukh Khan and Kareena Kapoor, this one will feature `real' characters, mostly playing themselves. The film (Sivan is toying with the title Navarasa for it) picks up on the Mahabharata myth where Arjun's son Arawan asked that he marry before he was sacrificed for the cause of the Pandavas. Since that would mean his wife would turn widow overnight, Krishna stepped forward, became a woman Mohini and married Arawan. The next day, of course, Arawan was sacrificed. Sivan's two-hour feature is set in the tiny village of Koovagam in Tamil Nadu that celebrates Arawan's gesture. Its men dress up as women during the festival, in sarees, elaborate wigs and jewellery and once the statue is beheaded, break their bangles in bereavement. "The story is told through a girl (incidentally, the actor of Sivan's film Malli) who finds out that her uncle is leading this double life," says Sivan, who also directed the acclaimed Terrorist and that gooey-chocolate warm children's film Halo. It also sensitively deals with transsexuals and gays in its telling and also stars Bobby Darling. The film is produced by Sivan's and Sunil Doshi's Handmade Filmsthat also made Amitabh Bachchan's Cadbury, Pulse Polio and Maruti Alto commercials. Sivan is back in the director's chair after a break, during which he shot M F Husain's gorgeous Meenaxi: Tale Of Three Cities and Gurinder Chadha's Bride and Prejudice. Sivan basks in the praise he received for capturing Husain's vision, "I think we should encourage such different films instead of those that just rehashes. This had impressions from Husain's own life and he wanted to capture a cobbled street in Prague that he had been to 50 years ago." Sivan is also set to shoot Michael Ondaatje's novel Anil's Ghost. "I also did a documentary on the Ganga, tracing it from Gangotri to Ganga Sagar, for which Amitabh Bachchan gave the commentary," he adds. 2) Pick Me Movie `Pick Me' takes a new look at homosexuality Mumbai: Homosexuality, is a topic that is hardly talked about openly, in Indian society. This became evident when Deepa Mehta's film `Fire' hit the silver screen; raising hackles of conservative Indians. The same reaction was visible when Karan Razdan "Girlfriend" was released. `Pick Me', which has a Hollywood mix is based on a true story of an Indian homosexual. Budgeted at Rs. 45 lakhs ( 104,651 Dollars), the film has been directed by Faisal Saif and stars newcomers Ajay Verma and British actress Heyley Cleghorn. Saif says that the idea of making the film occured to him after he met a gay make-up artist while working as an assistant director to Balu Mahendra and Kamal Hassan down South. "The film is based on the real life story of one of my friends living in Chennai who is a make up designer. His life always influenced me, and I decided to make a short film on him. Luckily, everything went well and it came out to be a feature film. It's really a great experience," said Saif. Ajay Verma said that he got into the skin of the character. "I got to do the character of a gay prostitute. Since no one ever has done a character like this, there was no one, could look to for direction. So it was a big challenge for me, and I did my best," he said. "Pick Me", tells the story of Verma who is picked up by Cleghorn. She attempts to change his sexual preference by seducing him. Cleghorn hopes the Indian audiences will appreciate her work and she looks forward to working in another Hindi film soon. "I would definitely love to do something in Bollywood. I love dancing and I know that there is a lot of dancing in Bollywood. Also, I would like to act in a Hindi film and learn the language too," Cleghorn said. The film is slated to be released in August. ------------------------ Yahoo! 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