Monday, April 29, 2013
Deepa Mehta, Director, decided upon the movie at a time when a woman's sexuality in India was still a taboo. It questioned the basic formation of rules laid down upon an Indian woman to define something as simple as a relationship.
The movie tells the story of a traditional Indian household, a joint family of five. Between Radha (Shabana Azmi) and Sita (Nandita Das), the daughter-in-law of the house, the former has a staunch devotee of a spiritual Guru as a husband who is also practicing celibacy while the latter's husband is involved in an extra marital affair with a Chinese girl. Narrating something as simple as that, the movie unfolds in an interesting pattern. Both the women, who have had arranged marriages according in traditional customs, are unable to receive their man's love. As the two confront their situation, they find solace in each other's arms and gradually come to terms with the increasing sexual affinity towards the other.
The story of the two women who have known nothing but tradition all their life have found pleasure in a homosexual relationship speaks tons about whether social media has anything to do with the increase in the number of people coming out of the closet. A woman denied of sex for almost thirteen years and the other, still exploring her sexual freedom outside her failed marriage, chance upon the sexual tension between them one fine day which ultimately takes shape of a strong and healthy relationship.
This hyper controversial movie was sparingly released in few parts of India and that too faced several challenges. The Thackeray party, Shiv Sena, as pathetic as ever, boycotted the showcase of one of the emerging mainstream Indian cinema. Not just Mumbai, even places like Delhi and Calcutta saw resentment from other religious-political leaders saying the movie "spoil [Indian] women" and younger generations by teaching "unhappy wives not to depend on their husbands" and informing the public about "acts of perversion." Though the metropolitan states were open to new ideologies, the religious and political opposition was such that it made it next to impossible for them to watch it.
Towards the end of the story, Sita, asks Radha to elope with her as confrontation (with Ashok, Radha's husband) would be tough knowing language knows no such word for homosexuality. This dialog really impressed me and did put put me into a deep thought. Why is it still forbidden? Isn't one of of the chapters of the book, Kamasutra, based on homosexual relations between a man and his servant. Don't we know already that homosexual relationships come as natural to human beings as any other form?
Hypocrisy continues to be a part of the Indian tradition is all I can conclude from the sour reception of the movie.
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