Vikas Bahl’s Queen won the most prestigious Best Film award at most award functions this year. Why would it not? It was a light-hearted family film that broke many traditional frames used in Bollywood. Usually, there is little place for sexual minorities in mainstream Indian Cinema. Films like Bombay Talkies, in which Randeep Hooda played a gay man or My Brother Nikhil are few films where the queer is not ridiculed openly. But queer cultures everywhere appropriate straight social texts for their own means and thereby create a new language using which they express themselves[i].
Queen is a film that
breaks away from most of what Bollywood stood for in the 1990s- demolishing the
idea of the big fat Indian wedding and focusing instead on finding oneself
outside of society’s rules. Not to forget the queerness of the word ‘QUEEN’
itself, in the title card the word QUEEN appears in rainbow hues, perhaps
underscoring Rani’s ‘queerness’. She is queer in the sense that she would
finally be able to break free of established structures within which life is
usually lived[ii].
In the film, Rani is dumped by one Vijay and meets another
and they quickly become friends. There is an implicit lesbianism in the film as
on the surface it is merely comedy but this Vijay gives to Rani what her
fiancée did not. She is attentive to Rani’s needs and encourages Rani to be
herself. In their last scene together,
Vijaylaxmi says-“Vijay nahi hai toh kya
hua Vijaylaxmi toh hai!” This is almost the theme of their relationship.
Vijaylaxmi repeatedly replaces Vijay in situations that allude to the
homoerotic relationship between them.
Their first encounter occurs when Vijay is barely clothed
and Rani looks at her bare body with wonder and discomfort. In another
instance, when they go shopping for clothes, Vijay walks into the changing room
without warning where Rani exclaims, she isn’t wearing anything. Moreover in
the same scene, Vijay wears a moustache, literally viewing Rani with the male
gaze, whistling and hooting as she tries on outfits. Both women seem very aware
of the other’s body. Rani appreciates how Vijay has ‘maintained’ her figure
post child-birth. While Vijay grabs at Rani’s chest telling her she has a
beautiful body and that she should show it off more.
More cues lie in the setting of the film. Paris, known to
be one of the LGBT hubs of the world, is where the two girls go clubbing. The
city is also where Rani and her fiancée wanted to go to for their honeymoon. Rani
eventually does go to the Eiffel Tower with her friend Vijay, not her fiancée. The
scene is in slow motion as their hair flies in the breeze and the Eiffel Tower—
symbolic of their love and friendship twinkles between them. In a different scene, Vijay and Rani are in
the back of a cab, and Vijay in her drunken state exclaims ‘Je t’aime’. The director perhaps uses the French language
to make this homoerotic element less accessible, but it lends itself well to
our queer reading.
In most such films there are scenes that deny any lesbian
intent[iii].
In this film, Rani watches closely as Vijay exchanges a ‘lip-to-lip kiss’ with
her boyfriend or when she talks about needing condoms. However, there is no explicit
denial of a possibility of a homoeroticism, nor is there any ridiculing of such
allusions.
To me then, the film deals with the implicit lesbianism
with a subtlety and maturity which is rare in mainstream Indian cinema. There
are other elements such as the themes of marriage, gender roles, prostitution,
morality and travel that are well worth exploring in this film. It is full of
interesting dialogue, well timed humour, and a depth in characterization that
is rarely seen in films with female protagonists. No wonder it was successful—
critically acclaimed and loved by the public. The fact that such a mainstream
film was nuanced enough to show sensitivity towards the queer (in the broadest
sense) is a step in the right direction.
http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/RBlMvJXmEPWDaxxX17DwwJ/Girls-dosti-and-love.html
(I have a credit in this post)
[i] Dudrah 2008 p. 256
[ii] Bakshi 2014.
[iii] Smelik 1985 p. 498.
References
Bakshi Kaustav, 2014. ‘Queen – Review:
The Joy of Being Happily Unmarried’ CinemaChronicles.in. March 18, 2014. Viewed
on 27/10/2014. <http://www.cinemachronicles.in/queen-review-the-joy-of-being-happily-unmarried/>
Dudrah, R 2008. ‘Queer as Desis:
Secret Politics of Gender and Sexuality in Bollywood Films in Diasporic Urban
Ethnoscapes’ In: Sangita Gopal and Sujata Moorti, editor(s). Global Bollywood.
Travels of Hindi Song and Dance. Minneapolis, USA: University of Minnesota
Press; 2008. p. 288-307.
IMDb. Internet Movie Database-Queen.
Viewed on 27/10/2014. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3322420/>
Smelik Anneke, 1985. Feminist Film
Thoery In: The Cinema Book, King’s
Cross,UK: British Film Institute; 1985. P. 491-585.
Queen (2014) Directed by Vikas Bahl
[Film]. India: Viacom 18 Motion Pictures and Phantom Films. Viewed on 27/10/14.
<http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x25b197_queen-2014-new-hindi-full-movie-720p-hd_shortfilms>
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