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The experience of watching a Bollywood film with all its vibrant colours, music numbers, and drama is unlike any other. If life imitates art and art is nothing but a representation of our lives on a 45x65ft screen, the one thing Bollywood has majorly failed to represent is the LGBTQIA community.
“Growing up, I didn’t have many imageries of positive queer South Asian experiences,” said Shiva Raichandani to HuffPost UK, whose directorial musical short film Queer Parivar is a celebration of inter-generational queer lives and encapsulates joy and hope while also focusing on the everyday mundane moments of their lives. In the same interview, Raichandani also talks about the importance of these simple mundane moments existing on-screen, believing not every act by a person of the LGBTQIA community has to be a revolutionary moment in itself.
“A lot of our narratives tend to revolve around sadness, trauma, violence, death, murders, and so this was a way to make room for joy, hope, celebration, and love. We also don’t talk about or see enough of elder queer south Asians living out and proud, so bringing the intergenerational aspect was important to me” said Raichandani whose film revolves around Madhav and Sufi (with Madhav being played by Raichandani) on their wedding day.
Their wedding is interrupted by a mystery guest who happens to be Madhav’s long-lost grandmother, when the maternal figure lovingly accepts the happy couple, it also reveals family secrets. Revealing her own reason for being ostracised from the family, Madhav finds solace in their grandparent’s queerness.
In their own words, “Introducing a sensitive storyline with a young trans non-binary lead and an elderly queer character, through a commercial and culturally significant setting - a wedding, complete with a musical experience, allows the film to be accessible to people of all ages and backgrounds.”
“Showcasing positive imageries of interfaith, intergenerational queer love is a powerful form of dissent; an empowering lesson in queer solidarity by emphasising our shared experiences while also highlighting our intersectional differences through cultural filters.”
Like most Bollywood films, the musical film is a celebration, a rekindling of familial love, friendship and community.
You can find out more about Queer Parivar here.
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