Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
A woman's WORLD
|
Bringing Sancharam, Ligy Pullappally's film on lesbians, out of the film festival circuit and to mainstream audience at its recent screening was a revelation of sorts, writes HEMANGINI GUPTA
|
Ligy Pullappally accepting the Lankesh Chitra Prashasti from Anant Nag. — Photo: Bhagya Prakash K.
LIGY PULLAPPALLY'S honest and sensitive film on lesbians, Sancharam, which has so far only done the sheltered rounds of film festivals, finally hit grass root audiences when it was screened at the Lankesh 70 celebrations at the A.D.A. Rangamandira in Bangalore. Seated vulnerably in the centre of a vocal and growing crowd, Lankesh Chitra Prashasti-winner Pullappally bravely fielded questions ranging from what the causes of bad lighting in her film were (there weren't any it seems; just a faulty projector) to a belligerent stance questioning the existence of any message at all in her film.
The film
Sancharam, literally `The Journey' in Malayalam, is a story of two young lesbians, Kiran and Delilah, set refreshingly in rural Kerala. As neighbours they grow up together, living an inextricably intertwined life. And soon at adolescence, a young boy, Raman, falls in love with Delilah. Unable to express his love for her, he outsources the task to Kiran. Pensive, introspective and sensitive, Kiran writes in these letters what she herself feels for Delilah, and when the ghost writer is revealed, Delilah responds with the same feelings.
The wonder of this debut film lies in Pullappally's treatment of the two as they discover each other. The physicality is explored through suggestion and implication, rather than graphic visuals till the pair's love for each other seems natural and imagining either with someone else, unthinkable. Refreshingly, the film is based not in the "progressive" milieu of an urban metropolis, but in the idyllic and breathtaking landscapes of Kerala, captured in magnificent, sweeping shots of the panorama. Some blatant metaphors and rough-hewn parallels aside, Sancharam is an incredibly honest film.
Importantly, unlike Fire (the Mira Nair directed film on the same topic), Kiran and Delilah don't turn to each other after disillusionment with heterosexual relationships. They don't turn to each other because of trauma inflicted by men (like Monster, the true story of Aileen Wuornos who suffered horrendous and multiple rapes till she turned lesbian and became a serial killer). Instead the girls are each other's first choice; they didn't find each other because nothing else worked out, they found each other in the first place, robustly proving that lesbianism is natural and not a secondary option.
Once a lawyer, Pullappally made two short films and directed many plays before she set out to film Sancharam; triggered off by an email announcing the suicide of a young lesbian in Kerala. "The email affected me so much that I wanted to make a film to give a positive impression of young, gay people. The message is tolerance and I want to distribute it in Kerala to make people think twice before suicide," she says.
Contradictory reactions to her film were obvious; the man in front of me fell asleep mid-way through it, only to be helpfully woken up by his neighbour at the first scene showing intimacy between the girls, and audience members filing out muttered at the "lack of `action'".
Sensitive portrayal
But the lesbian theme acting as an incentive for people to watch the film doesn't bother her, Pullappally said. "The film gives a respectful, sensitive portrayal of the subject and even if people came with preconceived notions, the idea is that hopefully they'll leave with a positive idea."
This might not have worked entirely, but if the pleased faces and positive feedback from women's groups and Sangama (representing minority sexualities) were anything to go by, Sancharam will be hugely successful in reinforcing positive feelings about gays. Pullappally says she wanted to make a film with a positive ending, to give courage to gay couples in a country which criminalises homosexuality, and in that she has surely been completely successful.
The challenge now is to ease the film out of the comfortable environs of the film festival circuit and out into the real world, where awareness of and tolerance about homosexuality is minimal, and where it will undoubtedly stand off against sceptics. "I'll try to get the film `four walled'; distribute it myself," she explains. It won't be easy but the effort will, surely, be pathbreaking.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
|
