The diversification of humankind has been a dilemmatic revolution since the time it has come into existence. It has been created, recreated, destroyed and then judged, but something that couldn’t be ceased to exist, was Love, Love had no boundaries, then and now; For aeons, the film industry has celebrated Love, romance and the people have fantasized about the different dimensions, but some remained hidden, some didn’t show up, as it wasn’t normalized by the societal norms; The love that ignited in two souls irrespective of their gender.

Before going any further let’s dive into the setback from where it all started

The Stonewall riot, June 28 1969, being the spine of the prodigious movement of eternal love that comes with no boundaries, gave the ultimate turning point for the whole of mankind. The popular gay bar, the Stonewall Inn, in Greenwich Village was where the riot broke out, the customers who were angry and took a stand against the harassment committed by police, rooted the riot several advocacy groups came forward with intense discussions about civil rights among the New york’s LGBT people, “The short-lived Gay liberation Front” which was first advocacy group to behold the word “gay” in its name, and a city-wide newspaper called “Gay”. In India, the British Raj denied the existence of homophiles and declared it a criminal offence under chapter 16, Section 377 of the Indian penal code, after a constant strive till 2018, 5th Sept, the Supreme court scrapped the amendment and calls it unconstitutional on 6th Sept 2018, where the judicial battle comes to an end; but India is yet to accept the community as normal and therefore denies equal rights.

The LGBTQIA community isn’t a “trend” or “abnormal” as it is called by the citizens of India even after a year of scrapping Sec 377, Rather India, being so rich in mythology has taught that defied the binary. Having glamorizing and worshipping the prominent LGBT figures like “Shikhandi, in Mahabharata”, “The Ardhanarishvara” depicted with the female form of Parvati on the left and the masculine attributes of Shiva on the right, “Bhagavati-Devi”, “Samba”, “Arjuna in Mahabharata as Brihannala”, “The Kama-sutra”, “Nammallvar”, “Ila”, “Budha Graha”, “Mitra and Varuna”, “Agni”, “The Khajuraho temples” etc. The citizens constantly denied their existence. The constant strive to establish the LGBT community in the perspective of humankind is never-ending.

As the evolution strived further, artists then thrived an irenic aspect to establish their existence, and since then the rise of LGBTQIA representation took place in the movies and other artistry forms. Regardless of the reverberating contribution of the industries, Bollywood has been the prime fury for us to be able to actually learn about it. But sadly, over the years, the representation of the LGBT community has been a frivolous one with a bunch of stereotypes that were too bizarre to handle. However, still, on the contrary, some of the finest filmmakers did make an extraordinary effort to keep it unreally real with heart touching stories and more.

And with the OTT rise, the showcase has been a powerful one, and it’s definitely a better portrayal of the LGBTQIA characters, and better plots that are truly worthy to watch. Whether it’s a bit out of the box with Fire (1996), Memories In March, Margarita with a straw, or even heavily commercial-like Laxxmi Bomb, Bombay Talkies, Chandigarh Karein Aashiqui, Escaype Live or Fame Game, it’s needless to say that the writers and directors are marking a better treatment of the LGBT characters, showing them on a different light. Nonetheless, it also sometimes feels that the inclusions of the LGBTQIA spectrum have been unnatural and forced into the script just to get in the light. A typical unnecessary showcase of characters with no real value addition also leads a bad light onto the front. Here we discuss in depth the movies that solely ran on the concept of the fierce community with a bit light on the ups and downs.

Bombay Talkies

The anthology of four short films, Karan Johar, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar and Anurag Kashyap tells of four different perspectives and storylines has been a stellar watch. What’s more, the film lines up with a realistic portrayal of Gay characters, one is Saqib Salim and the other is Randeep Hooda. Randeep Hooda aka Dev is married to Rani Mukherjee aka Gayatri and has been in constant denial over the past years of his sexual orientation until he meets Avinash from Gayatri’s office. The intimidating scenes definitely give you pioneering goosebumps.

Aligarh

Amazingly portrayed by Manoj Bajpayee the film shows a therapeutic cinematic brilliance. It also brings up the plight of the LGBTQIA community and how we actually perceive them in the societal infrastructure. The constant invasion of the professor’s privacy to find out his sexual orientation and then the untimely seize away of his job, says how ‘homophobia is deep routed’.

Fire

The 1996 film directed by Deepa Mehta came out as a revolutionary piece. It was way ahead of time, and it’s to give a worthy pat on the director’s shoulders for making such a stunning effort to bring up this heavy subject on board. The story is about two housewives, sisters-in-law in a relationship, stuck in their unhappy marriage, who find intimacy with each other.

Margarita With A Straw

Starring Kalki Koechlin, the film spins around a young woman, Laila who with age identifies her sexual orientation as a bisexual. The constant struggles between her and her mother, who isn’t likely to accept her bisexual orientation, show the hard reality that the community faces in reality.

Laxxmi Bomb

Starring Akshay Kumar, the commercial comedy film showcases a strong character of a transgender, portrayed by Akshay Kumar who gets possessed by a spirit of a transgender activist. With hilarious comic notes, the film definitely sets an over the top example to showcase the plight of the transgender community.

Escaype Live

The brand new series on Disney+ Hotstar showcases a transgender character portrayed by Rohit Chandel. Who dresses up as a woman and is a talented singer on the app Escaype Live while earning fans with a mellifluous voice, gets discarded when decides to show the real self in front of society.

Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui

Starring Ayushmann Khurrana and Vaani Kapoor, the film definitely strikes with a better understanding of the transgender community, where a trans woman portrayed by Vaani Kapoor falls in love with Ayushmann Khurrana who happens to be straight in terms of his sexual orientation. The film brings up a beautiful romantic tale with a tint of Bollywood spice.

Memories in March

The film is a powerful story of a mother attempting to find some peace with her late son’s sexual direction and investigating herself all the while. Without diving profound into the city life lowly, the director attempts to catch the profound acrobat of a dispossessed mother whose connection with her dead child’s homosexual partner takes the plot ahead.

Modern Love: Mumbai

Modern Love: Mumbai shows the different shades of love on the front, a gorgeous tale to fantasize upon nonetheless, fantastically portrayed with sheer delicacy, the characters, whether it’s young love or same-sex. Pratik Gandhi and Ranveer Brar grooved into a hurling and sensational ride to show the ‘societal uncanny’ love.

Of course there are many more instances and we hope that we will witness much and many more LGBTQIA representation in time to come.

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