Samarth Sharma speaks about his short film, featuring Alok Nath, that is making waves on the internet for exposing the hypocrisy around gay marriages
After turning the sanskaari concept on its head by becoming a Sinskaari, a web chat show where Alok Nath as benevolent patriarch asks celebrities about their sins, the veteran actor is addressing the tricky issue of gay marriages.
In a new web video called Sasural Genda Fool by Nazar Battu Productions, the actor is seen playing a concerned father negotiating the marriage rituals of his son with his partner’s family. While our conventionalBabuji seems quite accepting of the decision of his gay son to marry his partner, he clings to old world ways regarding horoscope matches and ceremonies. He keeps on saying, “Mainsab sambhaal loonga (I will take care of everything),” assuring his son and his partner that he would see them through, but is not willing to compromise on seemingly technical issues such as who would wear the mangalsutra, who would begin the pheras and what if the boys’ birth charts did not match at all. In the end, he cannot tally the charts in the absence of astro computer technology on same-sex compatibility. Babuji cleverly uses this technical shortcoming to annul the negotiations, saying though he is all for the lovebirds, seems like modern technology had not factored in social progress. And a marriage could not happen till it complies with mandatory social requirements like assessing destinies.
Very cleverly, the protagonist, though arguing for gay rights, uses a software flaw to deny two consenting adults their togetherness. Deep down, both families believe in falsely glorified and pathetically hollow ideologies and uphold them smartly while not appearing villainous in front of their sons. The video, while arguing for gay rights, also emphasises the need for changing the mindset for organising marriages in general. It asks an important question, in what ratio should we blend tradition with modernity and by how much should that change, considering marriages and their celebration are a benchmark of social life in India.
“We are not trying to give any message through this short film, just exploring the conservatism about gay marriages and how glib people are about it,” says Samarth Sharma, screenplay writer. The short film has already has around 70,000 thousand hits on Youtube and 49,000 subscribers. “We thought of including Alok Nath, who is a cult symbol of the traditional Indian family, to debunk our inherent hypocrisies and homophobia,” he adds. The actor was so impressed with the script that he took it up immediately.
The dialogues are laced with sarcasm as the parents are shown homophobic and conservative. The expectations of the mothers to exploit their bahus get ruined after the decision of their sons. Who will give dowryIJ Who will play the role of wifeIJ At one point, Nath as Babuji blames his wife for the child’s misplaced notion of sexuality, saying, “Tumhi toh usko ladkiyo ki tarah tayaar karti thi (you dressed him up as a girl when he was young). “It is true. People think that they can lay the norms of a highly distinguished character. They think homosexuality is a deviation and an acquired habit, forced from the outside,” says Samarth.
Nath chirps in, “Since childhood I have seen transgenders coming on the occasion of marriages or to welcome the new-born. I hated the way they checked the genitals of babies and if they found anyone to be of the third sex, they would insist and pressure the parents to hand him over to them, saying he was inauspicious. Today even the third sex as a community has legal rights. Why should we then isolate homosexuals and have a bias against themIJ”
He liked the satitical comedy format. “I particularly found it challenging to enact the way the father cancels the marriage saying there is no app developed to match the kundalis of the same sexes. And he does it with a smooth devilish smile. We may be in a tech era but our mind is a fossil.”
“Besides sexuality, we highlighted other obstructionist issues of a love marriage,” says Samarth. The short film was completed in a month.