This presentation is about Hindi cinema and Queer theory.

1. Queer Theory and Hindi
Cinema
By Nidhi Jethava

2. Prepared by : Nidhi Jethava
Batch : 20-22 MKBU English Department
Paper No. : 204 (Contemporary Western Theories and Film Studies)
Roll Number : 13
Enrollment Number : 3069206420200009
Email Id : jethavanidhi8@gmail.com

3. What is Queer Theory ?
• Queer theory is often used to designate the
combined area of gay and lesbian studies, together
with the theoretical and critical writings about all
modes of variance—such as cross-dressing,
bisexuality, and transsexuality— from society’s
normative model of sexual identity, orientation, and
activities.
• The term “queer” was originally derogatory, used
to stigmatize male and female same-sex love as
deviant and unnatural; since the early 1990s,
however, it has been adopted by gays and lesbians
themselves as a noninvidious term to identify a way
of life and an area for scholarly inquiry. See Teresa
de Lauretis, Queer Theory: Lesbian and Gay
Sexualities, 1991; and Annamarie Jagose, Queer
Theory: An Introduction, 1996. (M. H. Abrams &
Geoffrey Galt Harpham )

4. The basis of Queer Theory
• According to Markus Theil
• “Queer theory’s origins are in LGBT studies –
which focus on sexuality and gender. It soon
distanced itself from those approaches due to
disagreements with the stable identities that
LGBT studies suggest. Queer theory
emphasizes the fluid and humanly performed
nature of sexuality – or better, sexualities. It
questions socially established norms and
dualistic categories with a special focus on
challenging sexual (heterosexual/homosexual),
gender (male/female), class (rich/poor), racial
(white/non-white) classifications. It goes
beyond these so-called ‘binaries’ to contest
general political (private/public) as well as
international binary orders (democratic/
authoritarian).

5. Queer theory looks at:
According to Pushpinder Kaur
• The general construction of sexuality in discourses of medicine, law or
religion.
• Popular representation of the gay or the lesbian.
• The public understanding of alternate sexualities.
• The ‘hidden history’ of homosexual writing and representation.
• The institutional (religion, family, medicine, law) structures that undergird
popular representations of homosexuality.
• The link between sexuality-based oppression and other discriminatory
forms such as patriarchy and racism.
• The geography of sexuality, with specific reference to ghettoization of gays
and homosexuals.

6. Connection between queer theory and cinema
• Cinema is a powerful medium to
catalyze social change.
• Like other art forms cinema is both
a part of social reality and also a
medium of portraying it. Films have
subtle influence on society’s way of
thinking.
• Cinema has undoubtedly
contributed a lot to the queer
movement in India. Sexual minority
consists of all those people who fall
under the categories of Lesbians,
Gays, Bisexuals and Transgenders.

7. Puspinder Kaur in his article says that :
“In a country like India where cinema has the potential to shape the
perception of majority of the population, realistic films about the LGBT
community will definitely have a massive positive impact on the
mindsets of the people. Over the years the representation of LGBT
community in Hindi cinema has found itself under the scanner. Hindi
cinema has witnessed a steady display of LGBT characters some for the
comic effect and some, however, stayed true to reality and made an
effort to treat the subject in a very sensitive and realistic light but
unfortunately to a larger extent these films could not challenged the
traditional myths and have failed to break the ‘taboo’.”

8. Sadak
According to Chatterjee
• Third gender played a significant role in Hindi cinema. Films like ‘Tamanna’,
‘Shabnam Mausi’, ‘Daayra’, ‘Darmiyaan’,‘Welcome to Sajjanpur’ attempted
to take a serious take on third gender.
• For the first time in the history of Hindi cinema, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt
casted actor Sadashiv Amrapurkar as ‘Maharani’, a eunuch who was the
lead villain of the movie Sadak.
• The actor’s performance fetched him a Filmfare award but the role did little
to improve the image of eunuchs in the society. The movie depicted her as
an evil brothel owner who tortures and traffics young women. In a film
where the trans character got so much screentime, there was a constant
reiteration of the harmful myths associated with the trans community,
ultimately creating a stereotype in Indian mainstream culture.

9. Kapoor and Sons
• The film featured a gay protagonist
whose sexuality served as a sub-plot
instead of being the central conflict in a
mainstream film that more or less, centred
around him. His homosexuality is
incidental to his personality, as he exists
among a slew of straight characters who
harbour even worse secrets of their own.
Even though it forms a part of the conflict
toward the end, his sexuality is not spelt
out in a dramatic life-changing declaration
that mainstream Bollywood films are
notorious for. By withholding his
orientation until pretty late in the
film, Kapoor & Sons made it possible to
have a gay character whose sexuality
neither defined him nor made him any
different from the rest of us. ( POULOMI
DAS )

10. Dostana
• The Guardian observed, “Now
India's convoluted attitude to
gayness finally has its cinematic
manifestation in Dostana
(Friendship), one of the gayest
films ever made in our country
but in which almost no one is
actually gay.

11. Dear Dad
• The most recent example being
Aravind Swami in the film Dear Dad,
where he comes out as a homosexual
in front of his son and how he explains
his side of the story. For an actor
who’s made a comeback to Bollywood
after a decade, the choice to pick the
role and essay it with sincerity, was a
welcome surprise for audiences. Even
if the film hasn’t succeeded on the
whole, the fact that the actor, known
for his ‘masculine charm’, not
worrying about his image is itself a
welcome gesture. (Srivathsan
Nadadhur,)

13. Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga
• Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa
Laga sets out to smash our
ideas of right and wrong.
Director Shelly Chopra Dhar
puts her heart and soul in this
love story. In the post-377 India,
this is exactly what a Bollywood
needed. It shows the mirror to
our commercial films, which are
always about the normal love
stories. The stories that are
always about a Raj falling in
love with a Simran and never a
Sweety falling for a Kuhu.
( Ananya Bhattacharya)

14. Bombay Talkies

15. Continue
According to Sameer Chopra
• “Resisting the righteous imperatives of assimilation, acceptance and “balanced”
sociability, queer subjectivity in Bombay Talkies appears to be constructed
through a far more oppositional matrix. In other words, the film takes the
“abnormality” of its queer characters so fully for granted that it does not for once
seek to portray them in unrealistically sympathetic or flattering terms. It also
broadens the discourse of queer representation by exploring hitherto
unchartered themes of “transgender” identity, cross-dressing and the unfixed,
perennially shifting relationship between sexuality and biology. This is especially
significant in the context of mass media representations in India, where the cross-
dresser is invariably a figure of mirth and derision. In effecting these
thoroughgoing departures, Bombay Talkies foregrounds what I provisionally term
a negative aesthetic, one that conceptualizes queerness as a locus of radical,
reterritorializing difference rather than rehabilitative sameness.

16. Aligarh
• Based on a true story of Ramchandra Siras, gay
professor at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), this film
was shrouded in controversy and was banned in the city
of Aligarh.
• Siras was suspended when he was caught with a man in
his living quarters on campus.
• It caused a huge uproar with both sides, pro and anti-
LGBT, fighting for or against him and his removal from
his position as faculty head for being gay.
• Bajpayee’s performance is full of depth. Aligarh is an
experience more than a film. I call it an experience
because it makes one ponder over their blessed lives
and how ignorant we are towards the plight of the
LGBTQIA+ community. (Sakshi Tickoo)

17. Queer Voice Shines In “Shubh Mangal Zyada
Saavdhan”

18. Continue
Nupur J. Says that :
• “The homosexual relationship
between Aman and Kartik is very
romantically portrayed with the
kissing in the train to holding each
other’s back no matter what. At
times, people may try to assign the
binaries of being feminine and
masculine to any of the two. But
again the stereotyping is kept at
bay with both characters displaying
both the traits in their action.”

19. Citation
• Abrams, M H, and Geoffrey G. Harpham. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Boston, Mass: Thomson Wadsworth, 1999.
• Bhattacharya, Ananya. "Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga Movie Review: Sonam Kapoor powers excellent lesbian
love story." India Today 01 February 2019.
• Chatterjee, Rituparna. "100 Years of Indian Cinema: Homosexuality in films." News 18 27 February 2013.
• Chopra, Sameer. "Towards a “Negative Aesthetic”: Bombay Talkies and the." Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary
Studies in Humanities 7 May 2017: 10.
• Das, Poulomi. "What Kapoor & Sons Teaches Bollywood About Coming Out of the Closet." Arre 18 March 2018.
• Dhaliwal, Nirpal. "Dostana is a straight victory for gay comedy." The Guardian 3 December 2008.
• J., Nupur. "Queer Voice Shines In “Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan”." Youth Ki Awaaz 3 May 2020.
• Kaur, Pushpinder. "Gender, Sexuality and (Be) longing: The Representation of Queer (LGBT) in Hindi." Amity Journal
of Media & Communication Studies (2017): 9.
• Nadadhur, Srivathsan. "Films for an inclusive society." The Hindu 12 September 2016.
• Thiel, Markus. "Introducing Queer Theory in International Relations." 7 January 2018.
• Tickoo, Sakshi. "Bollywood films that portrayed the LGBTQIA+ community realistically." City Spider 03 June 2021.