View: Coming out of the cinema, coming out of the closet
Me: In a Dostana remake, who would you like to be partnered with if you were cast as one of the characters originally played by Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham?
Amitabh Bachchan: Pass.
I remember this exchange with Bachchan Sr, back when I used to host a TV interview show. I recall, too, that I was not entirely surprised by his response.
I had learnt by then that many people who grew up without the benefit of a public discourse on homosexuality were uncomfortable with even a mention of a same-gender relationship.
About 15 years since that conversation, mainstream Hindi cinema has still not normalised homosexuality. Gay men, in particular, continue to be mostly treated as comic interludes, not a routine reality.
And the filmographies of the industry's reigning male superstars suggest that they are as chary of gay protagonists as Bachchan was in that interview all those years ago.
In matters of sexuality and gender, Hindi cinema is a microcosm of Indian cinema across languages. However, as a tsunami of cis-het machismo has raged across the country in the 2020s — epitomised by the pan-India triumph of the KGF franchise (Kannada), the Pushpa series (Telugu) and Animal (Hindi) — one megastar has stunned cinephiles this winter with Kaathal: The Core (Malayalam), a tender film on a closeted gay man.
Kaathal stars Mammootty as the Leftist politician Mathew, and Jyothika as his wife Omana, a couple stuck in a marriage that would not have happened if homosexuality was not stigmatised.
