To be gay in India and not belong: Aligarh needs to be watched

After winning acclaim at international festivals abroad, Aligarh premiered in India at the Mumbai Film Festival on October 30. Directed by National Award-winning filmmaker Hansal Mehta and featuring some of his key collaborators on the acclaimed Shahid such as actor Rajkummar Rao, editor Apurva Asrani and son Jai, who has been an assistant on his movies, the film sees Mehta again cast his lens on the trials and tribulations of the marginalised in the Indian society. In the case of Aligarh, it is the homosexuals.

Based on the true story of Dr Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras, reader and chairman of Modern Indian Languages at the Aligarh Muslim University, who in February 2010 was suspended by the University after two reporters barged into his campus apartment and shot him having consensual sex with a rickshaw puller, Aligarh sensitively portrays its gay protagonist, which has largely been missing from mainstream Bollywood fare. That the episode, labelled as "grossed misconduct" by his employers, occurred when the Delhi High Court had ruled Section 377 as unconstitutional and thereby decriminalised homosexuality makes the case all the more pertinent.

Also read: Are Indian gay men better off in the closet?

The film highlights relevant topics such as the need for privacy, the perception of love, struggles of bachelors to find rental accommodation in the country and society's tendency to outcast homosexuals and subsequently ruin their livelihoods. Ishani Banerjee has done a credible job in story and research but her and Apurva Asrani's screenplay is brought alive by the measured performance of Manoj Bajpayee, a 40-something actor who is absolutely compelling as a 64-year-old man, who is broken by the relentless character assassination and legal proceedings. Lonely and despondent, Siras would be found dead just two months after the incident. Two days before his death, Siras had spoken to reporter Deepu Sebastian (played by Rajkummar Rao), who had taken a keen interest in the case and explored the prospect of a conspiracy against Siras hatched by his University colleagues. "America is the only place where I will be free to be gay," said Siras to Sebastian expressing his disillusionment with India and its narrow-minded ways.

Producers Eros as of now is focusing all its energy on promoting Bajirao Mastani, which in case you didn't know already is clashing with Diwale on December 18. This means that Aligarh won't hit cinemas until next year. But when it does, it's a film that needs to be watched for it treats its gay leading man like a human being. It's something that Indians need to do so that learned individuals like Siras don't feel that they don't belong in their own birthplace.

Also read: Why I don't want to see Fawad Khan playing a gay man in KJo's next film