Picture perfect?

Why is the transgender community offended by their portrayal in Shankar’s I?

January 25, 2015 07:07 pm | Updated 07:07 pm IST

Ojas Rajani

Ojas Rajani

They too have fallen in love; waited for that late night phone call and text message from their special one; held hands within the dark warmth of a cinema hall… transgender women love as deeply as anyone else. This is one of the reasons why the community is shocked with the portrayal of Ojas Rajani’s character in director Shankar’s I . In the movie, Ojas, who belongs to the LGBT community, overtly lusts after Vikram and goes on to take revenge on him when spurned. He plays a transgender stylist in the film.

“It appears as though we hunger for sex and nothing else,” says transgender Priya Babu, a writer and documentary filmmaker based in Madurai.

Apart from the ridicule Ojas’s character is subjected to by Vikram, who plays the lead role, and comedian Santhanam, Priya is hurt that the character is dealt with a lot of negativity. “Given that the movie is being promoted so much, imagine its reach,” she says. “Tamil Nadu is a pioneer in the upliftment of transgenders. It’s here that every district has support groups that are doing good work. We have transgender doctors, auto drivers, writers… people from our community have gone on to give TNPSC exams and enrol in engineering colleges. How will their peers treat them now? If they have boyfriends, it’s possible that they will be influenced by the movie and mock them,” she feels.

Tamil cinema has long been insensitive to the LGBT community. This has played a role in shaping public opinion. Malicious jokes have been slipped into comedy tracks; audiences laugh in theatres and continue to do so as somewhere amidst them, a person cringes and sinks deeper into the seat. In a blogpost in Orinam.net, the website of a support group for the LGBT community in Chennai, Vishnu Ramakrishnan writes: “ Vettaiyadu Vilayadu upset me for its portrayal of homosexual men. I have no problem with gay men being villains or psychopaths, but the homophobic sentiments displayed by the lead character (played by Kamal Haasan) at a time when the LGBT community was taking baby steps in Tamil Nadu was very disappointing.”

But there have been a handful of positive portrayals as well. Remember Maniratnam’s Bombay ? Closer to the climax, it’s a transgender who provides refuge for one of Arvind Swamy’s sons who gets lost in the communal riots. Transgenders have been portrayed as people with a heart in movies such as Onayum Aatukuttiyum and Kanchana .

One might wonder: how much can a joke hurt? Or what difference can a small role in a movie make? — A lot, since the community depends heavily on the awareness created about it by the media. “Men tend to seek revenge; so do women. We can argue that Shankar depicted what happens in real life in his movie,” says transgender and writer A. Revathi. “But when society already doesn’t have a proper understanding about us, won’t people assume that we are vengeful by nature?” she asks.

Transgenders recently protested against their portrayal in I at Valluvar Kottam and in front of the regional Censor Board office inside Shastri Bhavan in the city, demanding an apology from Shankar, Vikram and Santhanam. Transgender rights activist Kalki Subramaniam says that they plan to take “legal action” against this “violation of human rights”. She calls for representation from her community in the Censor Board. “Even the Supreme Court has given us legal recognition and has directed the States to carry out welfare measures and take action against discrimination,” she observes.

Revathi says that the protest is not just against one film and one individual; rather against the collective wrongful representation of their community. “I don’t blame the director. He has reflected the stigma our community faces. But I wish he had shown a little respect for our emotions.”

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