Author Manish Gaekwad Reminds Us Of Irrfan Khan’s Banned Homosexual Romance ‘Adhura’, Calls Out Bollywood’s Weak Queer Representation
Bollywood is not new to queer representation. The Indian entertainment industry has been making films with queer themes and LGBTQ+ representation for a very long time now. While it hasn’t always been able to do justice to the theme, some films for the past were much much ahead of their time and that’s probably why they’ve been banned or looked down upon. One such film was late actor Irrfan Khan starrer 1995 film Adhura. It was said to be India’s first-ever openly gay film. Produced and directed by Ashish Balram Nagpal, the film was all about homosexuality. And it looks like this film not only remains forgotten but also locked in Bollywood’s closet. But a Twitter user decided to give us all a little reminder about how this film was an apt representation of homosexuality as compared to all the problematic queer characters shown by Bollywood back in the day. The user also spoke about other Bollywood films that had apt LGBTQ+ representation and how things might have been different had Adhura been released back then.
Sharing a collage of shots from Irrfan Khan starrer Adhura, freelance writer and author Manish Gaekwad said that Irrfan’s contribution to the queer cinema continues to remain locked away in a closet while calling him “one of the finest actors”. He shared that Adhura was banned in 1995 as the Censor board did not approve of same-sex romance back then while sharing some information about the plot of the film as well as the rest of the cast namely – Kitu Gidwani who played the role of Irrfan Khan’s wife in the film.
In the film, ironically called Adhura (Incomplete), Irrfan Khan plays a journalist who has an affair with an ageing industrialist.
Art dealer and gallerist Ashish Balram Nagpal played the role of the industrialist. Kitu Gidwani was playing a key role as Irrfan’s wife. pic.twitter.com/6j4D9ctmoA
— manish gaekwad (@manishgaekwad) June 16, 2022
Manish went on to share excerpts from articles and interviews about Adhura from the past. In one of the excerpts from one of Irrfan Khan’s interviews shared by the writer, the actor said that he has no qualms about playing gay roles and that he does not think that it will be detrimental to his career. He also shared that he does not care about his image or log kya kahenge.
According to SpotboyE, the story line suggests that the relationship turns sour, leading to a tragic climax.
In his study Queer Asian Cinema: Shadows in the Shade (2000), writer Andrew Grossman says the film was made as a pilot for a television series. https://t.co/7ikBgAt03R
— manish gaekwad (@manishgaekwad) June 16, 2022
Pointing out that the film was banned by CBFC and never release, the Twitter user said that while Adhura was publicised as the first Hindi film to openly deal with gay love, the fact is that the 1971 film Badnam Basti had already done it in the past.
In 1995, Adhura was touted as the first Hindi film to openly deal with homosexual love.
Although, there was a precedent in the clandestine romance in Badnam Basti made in 1971. https://t.co/XmFvcPVveA
— manish gaekwad (@manishgaekwad) June 16, 2022
Author Manish Gaekwad also went on to hail Irrfan Khan for not getting “cold feet” after his film on homosexual love Adhura was banned as he went on to play another gay role in Mira Nair’s 2008 short film Migration.
As Abhay, a closeted man married to Divya (Sameera Reddy), Khan romances a college-student Imran (Arjun Mathur) and even enacts the role with affectation to snare Imran’s attention in the presence of his demure wife.https://t.co/ZsfmbXiljI
— manish gaekwad (@manishgaekwad) June 16, 2022
Questioning if Adhura being released in 1995 would’ve changed queer representation in Indian cinema, the author went on to call out the entertainment industry for its inaccurate and “extremely problematic” queer representation. He also named some films and characters where queer representation was appalling like Anupam Kher’s Pinkoo in Mast Kalandar, Shakti Kapoor’s Jagraj in Veeru Dada and Sadashiv Amrapurkar’s Maharani in Sadak.
Oh, there's Shakti Kapoor with ghastly make-up and cruel intentions running into Dharam ji a year before Kher, in Veeru Dada (1990). pic.twitter.com/llhkj27ZzK
— manish gaekwad (@manishgaekwad) June 16, 2022
A gruesome death or jail was often the refuge of such criminal behaviour.
Another angle to this jaundiced view of queer lives is that it came from insiders; filmmakers belonging to the ‘khaandaani pesha’ or family business of filmmaking…
— manish gaekwad (@manishgaekwad) June 16, 2022
“Will a fair queer representation look arthouse or is arthouse the only way to narrate it?” questioned Manish Gaekwad. He went on to call out the filmmakers who come from families in the filmmaking business for their views on the queer community and for vilifying them
Rahul Rawail, director of Mast Kalandar, is the son of Harnam Singh Rawail, and Mahesh Bhatt, director of Sadak, is the son of Nanabhai Bhatt.
Second-generation helmers depicting queer lives from within a narrow framework of commercial exploitation & not the pursuit of realism.
— manish gaekwad (@manishgaekwad) June 16, 2022
Even the token sassy jailbird for comic relief in Sholay was on Ramesh Sippy’s money that came from his father G P Sippy’s ‘dhanda’.
As an aside, Bhatt made Tamanna (1997), about Tikoo (Paresh Rawal), a transperson abandoned by their actress mother. pic.twitter.com/pcsDxc4are
— manish gaekwad (@manishgaekwad) June 16, 2022
Pinkoo is a clown for laughs and Maharani evokes terror in the hearts of an already transphobic society. These characters mirror the heteronormal gaze of the public and stigmatise their perception about queer folx.
— manish gaekwad (@manishgaekwad) June 16, 2022
But at the same time, he hailed Riyad Wadia for his 1996 short film Bomgay which had an unapologetic representation of homosexual love.
It was the outsider’s gaze that looked through a wider lens. An outsider like Irrfan, or one from the inside out.
Riyad Wadia’s short film Bomgay (1996), feat a lusty Rahul Bose having sex with Kushal Punjabi in a library was the first such representation without apology. pic.twitter.com/YSkx3fSafg
— manish gaekwad (@manishgaekwad) June 16, 2022
Bomgay does not sit easy with the legacy of the Wadia oeuvre of fantasy, myth & swashbuckling cinema, mostly starring Fearless Nadia. Wadia’s documentary Fearless : The Hunterwali Story (1993) on the gender/role defying Nadia is an early indicator where his own bravado came from. pic.twitter.com/zqedR9GBTo
— manish gaekwad (@manishgaekwad) June 16, 2022
He also hailed Deepa Mehta’s 1996 film Fire which received support from the LGBTQ+ community but was looked down upon by the public.
She was seeking Bollywood talents with an outsider’s gaze, blending some of the conceits of the traditional Indian family film with the independent narrative of arthouse cinema. pic.twitter.com/HMDgl9S0sm
— manish gaekwad (@manishgaekwad) June 16, 2022
The 90s was also when MTV was changing Bollywood. Diversity was visible in music videos and television shows. The ‘khaandaani pesha’ was still churning escapist dramas, allowing independent filmmakers to risk it in alternative narratives.
— manish gaekwad (@manishgaekwad) June 16, 2022
Also Read: Disney Heir Charlee Corra Comes Out As Transgender, Says They Could Have Done Much More To Oppose Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill
Pointing out that MTV brought around a change in Bollywood in the 90s, the writer wondered if Adhura’s release would’ve encouraged Shah Rukh Khan, who wanted to play the role of an intersex character in 1996 which did not pan out in the end, to make a queer film. Sharing that being an outsider, SRK tried to do something offbeat, Manish said that Bollywood pushed the actor to keep it STRAIGHT and then Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge happened.
Nirmal Pandey and Sonali Kulkarni challenged gender norms in Daayra (1996). Film critics outside India loved it, and somehow the film also tragically managed to remain outside the purview of local audiences. pic.twitter.com/Tb9RfvBbSj
— manish gaekwad (@manishgaekwad) June 16, 2022
SRK, an outsider, like Irrfan, tried to work with the offbeat, but Bollywood was asking him to keep it simple and straight. DDLJ had happened, so Darmiyan was unlikely. By 1995, Hindi cinema was severely lacking in queer/diverse representation. It was the year of the insiders. pic.twitter.com/8yhJYTI9Uk
— manish gaekwad (@manishgaekwad) June 16, 2022
DDLJ was the top film in Hindi cinema and came from the firmly-embedded YashRaj dream factory. The other films in the top ten list of that year were: Karan Arjun, Raja, Rangeela, Barsaat, Coolie No 1, Sabse Bada Khiladi, Trimurti, Ram Jaane, Akele Hum Akele Tum. pic.twitter.com/fClqqYkoEv
— manish gaekwad (@manishgaekwad) June 16, 2022
Well, at least someone is calling out Bollywood for its sloppy and derogatory representation of the BLGBTQ+ community back in the day. While we’re all hailing the changing times and the decent quality of the queer representation in Bollywood, the fact remains that we still have a long way to go. Here’s to hoping we actually get to watch Irrfan Khan’s Adhura one fine day.
Photo Credits: Indiacontent.com/Adhura