The brain holes in Indian cinema have always been big!
In "My God", through the perspective of an alien, to observe the various religious barriers in India, and in "Starting Line", it is really laughable to let the father who is born in the middle class, for the quota of a famous school, pretend to be rich and poor.
But behind this brain-opening is the secret of Indian movies' repeated surprises: digging joy from reality, exploring reality from joy. Therefore, Indian movies always allow you to experience the sharpness of grounding after laughing, and fall into deep thought.
Recently, there is another such reality theme masterpiece launched - "True Xiongqi", the current Douban score of 7.7.
"True Rise" is nominally a sequel to "Rise Up", but it is actually a completely new story, the only similarity is that the male number one is Ayusman Kurana, a name that may make you feel a little strange, but if he is the male protagonist in "The Tuner", you may immediately remember it!
Ayusman's Kadik lives in Delhi with his same-sex lover Haman, and they love each other and have a strong affection, but due to the conservative environment in India, the two have not disclosed the relationship to their respective parents, and Haman has not even come out.
Subsequently, because they helped their friends elope, Kardick and Harman were chased and killed by the other family, and in a hurry, they had to take the train back to Harman's hometown and attend his cousin's wedding.
Kardic hoped to use the opportunity to get Harman to formally come out to his family, but the cowardly Harman disagreed. In desperation, Kardick had to meet Harman's family as a good friend.
However, on the train to meet the kiss, they couldn't help but hug each other and kiss passionately, just happened to be seen by Harman's old father, and the hidden love was exposed in an instant...
Apparently, this is a comedy that explores the taboos of homosexuality.
In the film, the Indians play their usual witty and humorous nature, creating a lot of jokes, especially the scene where Harman argues with his parents about whether he should be gay or not, which is simply hilarious, and a terrier passes back and forth between the three of them, which is really funny and full of simple life atmosphere, and the play is very slippery!
But behind the joy, there is an airtight and heavy reality - this family of three, under the constraints of secular etiquette, has lost the freedom to choose their lover, the parents have given up their lovers and obeyed the arranged marriage, and Harman has to disguise heterosexuality all the time.
Compared with the parents, as a gay Harman encountered more environmental pressure, in india's religious culture, homosexuality is a great disrespect to faith, and in the laws and regulations, article 377 of the Criminal Code also put homosexuality into prison, which is why Harman is reluctant to come out, and why Harman's father was shocked after finding his son kissing a man, first shocked, then vomited, and finally fainted to the point of almost having a heart attack.
Why is it that when Kardick openly kissed Haman at the wedding, his uncle quickly covered their heads with clothes and began to make up lies and lies, and the family chose to believe.
Because homosexuality in India is such a frightening and unacceptable reality.
In the past ten years, India's economy has developed rapidly, and many customs and habits have also changed subtly, such as caste and feminism, but only homosexuality has never been conclusive, first innocent, and then re-sentenced in 2013, until September 6, 2018, Article 377, which convicted homosexuals, was overturned again. This repetition reflects India's hesitation and entanglement as an ancient civilization in the face of modern civilization, and shows how difficult it is to legalize homosexuality in India.
And this difficulty is also aptly reflected in the film.
Not only are all people opposed to Khadic and Harman together, but even the main theme of the film itself does not dare to argue that homosexuality is a normal physiological phenomenon and a reasonable thing, but only binds it to arranged marriages and caste marriages, and in an analogous manner, "people have the right to choose their own partners" as an argument to roundabout support Fordick and Harman's relationship.
At the end of the film, with the overthrow of Article 377, all those who had ever opposed this homosexual affair suddenly became enlightened, and Kardic and Harman had a lover and finally became a family... This happy treatment is obviously too idealistic.
Its discussion of homosexuality is far less than that of "Aligal" produced in 2015, which not only bluntly advocates the natural existence of homosexuality, but also boldly ends in tragedy, attacking the intolerance in India. Of course, "Ali geer" is a non-mainstream work, the target is also a major film festival, and "True Hero" is a commercial film aimed at the domestic market.
Coincidentally, the film "The Feeling of Meeting Girls", which is known as "India's first same-sex commercial film", also combines topics such as men can cook, Muslims can love Hindus, and screenwriters can also achieve personal value, etc., from the starting point of "people have the right to choose to be themselves", to rationalize the heroine's homosexuality, and finally achieve a reunion.
"The Feeling of Meeting a Girl"
It can be seen that the acceptance of homosexuality in India is still quite low, and commercial films can only choose this "curve to save the country" method for box office considerations.
But from an optimistic point of view, mainstream commercial films dare to shoot same-sex themes, which is already a success in itself.
In this shooting, the government also expressed strong support, not only to make the film pass the trial smoothly, but even the scenes of men kissing were all green lighted. Thus, regardless of civil attitudes, the legalization of homosexuality has at least been correct at the political level.
In an interview, lead actor Ayusman said he was happy to be in the film, and he also talked about the kiss scene in the film, which was filmed three times in total, "(but) I didn't feel embarrassed, just felt different." As an actor you should be prepared for everything, kissing a man is obviously a different experience. But I think it's more important to convey a message that as many people as possible know that kissing between people of the same sex is normal. ”
At the end of the film, instead of flying the rainbow flag symbolizing homosexuality, Khadic and Harman generously danced traditional Indian songs and dances, highlighting the leadership of Bollywood films in guiding the direction of social topics, and I believe that tomorrow's India will be more inclusive.