Queering Bengali Cinema: Rituparno Ghosh's Retelling Of Cultural Texts

Queering Bengali Cinema: Rituparno Ghosh's Retelling of Cultural Texts

Themes of loneliness drive my films"

~Rituparno Ghosh

Antarmahal (2005) Shubho Mahurat (2003) Chokher Bali (2003) Abohomaan (2009) Dosar (2006) Utsab (2000) Dahan (1997) Unishe April (1994) Shob Charitro Kalponik (2009) Asukh (1999)

Rituparno Ghosh was a gender nonconforming, sexually dissident filmmaker who made and acted in films revolving around openly homosexual, bisexual and transgender characters. For his work, he won accolades including national awards in India and recognition at film festivals around the world. In 2013, 50-year-old Ghosh met with an untimely death due to heart attack; however, he lives on as India’s most visible queer icon, whose mere presence shook the heteropatriarchal foundations of Bengal’s as well as India's cultural milieu.

In two decades of his filmmaking career, Ghosh consistently engaged with topics considered taboo in the Bengali bhadralok society. Even though, it was much later that he started working with explicit queer content in his films, in the early phase of his career, in films such as Unishey April (1994), Dahan (1997), Bariwali (1999), Utsab (2000), Shubho Maharat (2003), Ghosh dealt with trauma and repressed desire of women in a patriarchal society, seen by scholars as a reflection of the agony of a queer individual in the proverbial closet in a heteronormative society.[1]

Ghosh’s cinema was relatable for the Bengali bhadralok because it was heavily influenced by the film aesthetic of revered filmmakers such as Satyajit Ray. While this visual language made him a favourite of the English-educated, urban Bengali, his exploration of the ‘unusual themes’ placed him at the receiving end of scathing criticism. Ghosh, however, was quick to find a middle ground. He succeeded in evoking the nostalgia of the rich heritage of Calcutta by employing Hindustani classical music or Rabindra Sangeet as background score, and by setting the film narrative in the decorated interiors of old mansions of colonial or pre-colonial Calcutta. Under the garb of such nostalgic elements, he lured the bhadralok audience to the cinema theatre and presented his queer film aesthetic in a way that would suit their sensibility. This subterfuge of relatability helped Ghosh naturalise the themes of same-sex desires and the experiences of queer people of his later films.

In a similar vein, in queer-centric films that Ghosh made, influenced or took part in, such as Arekti Prem er Golpo (2010), Memories in March (2010) and Chitrangada: The Crowning Wish (2012), he freely accessed indigenous cultural resources to validate their contents. He delved into Bengal’s religious myths and cultural artefacts to perform alternative readings that not only helped historicise homosexual and other queer desires, but also helped normalise their struggles in the eyes of the cinemagoers.

Arekti Prem er Golpo: Androgyny and the Figure of Chaitanya Arekti Prem er Golpo (Just Another Love Story) is a film that Ghosh heavily influenced, although he did not direct it. The director, Koushik Ganguly, later confessed that Ghosh was rather stubborn about playing the role of the queer protagonist after his own image, instead of indulging the director’s idea. The film narrates the story of Abhiroop (played by Ghosh), an effeminate, homosexual filmmaker who is in the process of making a documentary film about Chapal Bhaduri, a Bengali jatra (popular folk theatre form of Bengal) actor who performed the roles of women on stage for 40 years. In the 1960s, Chapal Rani, as Bhaduri was known, was allegedly the highest paid ‘actress’ of Bengali jatra. The reference to the figure of Chapal Bhaduri in Arekti Prem er Golpo and his experiences as a performance artist, who constantly straddled male and female roles, supports the idea that gender is performative rather than biological. Abhiroop’s character is a modern-day parallel of Chapal’s. He loves a man but loses him when his lover’s wife becomes pregnant; the possibility of a child born out of a socially accepted heterosexual relationship, thus, obstructs the queer characters’ path to fulfilment. Abhiroop’s fate mirrors Chapal Bhaduri’s career as a female impersonator on stage, which came to an end when biologically female actors finally shattered the shackles of patriarchal restrictions and found their rightful place on stage. It restored the heteronormative standards where only a biologically female actor could play the part of a woman, and a biologically male actor could assume the role of a man. Bhaduri was no longer required to switch between gender binaries; while women emerged in the public space of the stage, the gender-queer actor was made to fade away.

The marginalisation that the gender nonconforming identities have to suffer echoes through the film, but there is also an assertion of the legitimacy of the ‘other’ gender beyond the male/female binary. The following conversation between Chapal and Abhiroop reflects this in the most effective way:

Abhiroop: Do you really see yourself as a woman, Chapal-da?

Chapal: Oh my! If I thought I was a man, there would not be any problem.

Abhiroop: I think women are one category, men are another, and we are a third category.

The reference to Sri Chaitanya, founder of the Gaudiya Vaishnava sect, also brings to the fore the celebration of androgynous identities and queer desires. Abhiroop, at one point, shaves his head to acquire a sort of ‘genderless’ look and narrates the story of Sri Chaitanya, whom he considers to be an icon of native cultural androgyny; Sri Chaitanya embodied both Radha and Krishna and preached Radha bhava (emotion)where the worshipper is in passionate love with Krishna. Ghosh’s films are also noted for their recurrent use of Vaishnava padavali (a lyric poetry tradition of verses narrating the erotic love play of Radha and Krishna).

Memories in March: Same-sex Desire and Brajabuli Lyrics Memories in March, written by Ghosh himself, and directed by Sanjay Nag, has a song written in Brajabuli language (an artificial language created by the fourteenth-century poet Vidyapati to write about the love of Radha and Krishna) by Ghosh which captures the eternal longing of the virahini (estranged lover) to be one with her love. The song, bahumanaratha saju abhisarey pahenu suneel bes (In the hope of meeting my lover, I put on a blue dress), speaks of Radha’s hope and anxiety about the possibility of meeting Krishna after a long separation.[2] The song plays in the background of scenes focussing on the sudden demise of Sidhharth, the lover of Ornab (played by Ghosh), in a car accident.

The use of this Brajabuli song in describing the love, longing and tragic end of a homosexual relationship accentuates the idea that same-sex desires transcend superficial physical attraction and have emotional and spiritual vitality like any romantic relationship. Ornab’s agony at the passing away of Siddharth is naturalised in the bhadralok eye by equating it with Radha’s agony at her separation from Krishna. Even in the film Raincoat (2004), there are Brajabuli songs narrating an illicit affair between a married woman and her childhood lover. These songs substantiate the queer aesthetic of Ghosh who bridges the gap between the legends of the illicit love affair of Radha-Krishna with the modern love affairs that function outside societal norms.

The language of the songs that establish the mood of Ghosh’s films is significant as well. According to Professor Bakshi, the use of songs written in Brajabuli language itself is symbolic[3] because Brajabuli is a language that does not have any geographical or cultural boundary; it is a language that borrows vocabulary from several other Indian languages. No language is, therefore, more suitable to carry the emotional gravity of the lived reality of people who do not fall under gender binaries.

Chitrangada: Gender Fluidity and Indigenous Myth Chitrangada: The Crowning Wish is a film that Ghosh wrote, directed and acted in. It draws inspiration from the legend of Princess Chitrangada whose father raised her as a boy but who wished to become a woman after falling in love with Arjuna. The film revolves around Rudra who meets Partho while rehearsing for a dance drama based on Tagore’s play Chitrangada (1892), falls in love with him and goes through a sex reassignment surgery to be able to bear a child. The story has conspicuous similarities with the Chitrangada myth. It validates the existence of deviant desires and identities from time immemorial, and invalidates the idea that these are the by-products of Western influence and modernity.

Ghosh’s engagement with the alternative readings of native resources not only queered the language of Indian cinema but also helped the Indian queer demography in locating itself in the indigenous culture of the land. His films and his presence in media as an openly queer individual gave the LGBTQ+ community of Bengal, and India at large, a voice. However, he has faced some criticism from the LGBTQ+ community for the glaring absence of the queer subculture, such as the drag culture and kotha-hijra(transgender communities)tradition of India in his cinema.[4] All the queer characters of his films are English educated, from urban spaces and financially affluent. This helped him naturalise queer identities in the bhadralok eye but weakened his films in terms of queer visibility, the politics of representing and bringing to the fore a heterogeneous cluster of queer figures in popular media.

Marvel Fic Recs | Peter Parker/Wade Wilson

so i have been a part of the spideypool fandom on and off since... 2019? some of these are really old and I might not remember details other than I thought it was great at the time - and when i started reading spideypool i didn't bookmark as liberally as i do today. got back into it after Deadpool and Wolverine (feel free to send me fics you think will get me more into that ship). How well these stand up against the test of time... can't be certain on all of them but at least they brought me joy the first or second time around.

let me explain by jilliancares Gen 8,505 Wade scoffs, shaking his head and elbowing Peter in the side. “Sure,” he says, sarcastic. “That’s why your spidey-sense doesn’t see me.” Peter’s on the verge of laughing, wanting to join Wade in his amusement, but he freezes. His entire body goes still. He finds himself staring at a roof three buildings over, not even looking at anything. Two blocks away, a car alarm finally shuts off. “I never told you that,” Peter says, the realization startling him. Or: Peter's starting to realize just how much Wade knows about him.

this was cute and fluffy.

I'm Something of a Scientist Myself by fancastical Explicit 11,422 Wade decides to start dousing himself in various synthetic spider sex pheromones before meeting up with Spidey, because why wouldn't he? They have some… interesting results. Wade feels downright scientific.

its smut but wacky. as i noted in my bookmark (very rare of me) "Fucking awesome and I dont usually bookmark pure smut... However there was so much effort put into this one it is definitely going down in history."

Freefall by Wilt Explicit 37,557 It's been a long time since Peter took off his mask in front of someone he loved, cracked a nervous smile and said, “This is me”. He swore to himself he'd never do it again, and he's been making a good run of it by spending more time as Spiderman than Peter Parker for the past few years. But for some reason, being Spiderman also means spending a lot of time around Deadpool. And, like clockwork, that same old turmoil comes creeping back again.

i bookmarked this in April of 22' (gonna re-read it and i'll update this). its got mutual pining and an identity reveal tho so its kind of hard to fuck that up.

Allostasis by ruralfishingcat Mature 42,434 Peter had a tendency to put up walls to isolate himself; even as Spider-Man, he could only suffer through so much death and destruction. It was precautionary, really, and those he'd pushed away would thank him were they aware of the circumstances. Of course, Deadpool had his own tendencies, one of which was to break down said walls (fourth ones included). As grating as it was, a small sliver of Peter hoped the mercenary would be able to succeed.

no memory of this but i bookmarked it back in 2022 and i didn't bookmark much back then.

fall out, boy, so i can fall in(to you) by TheMadKatter13 Explicit 81,041 Deadpool keeps having sex with Peter and Peter… Peter keeps letting him.

smut... pure smut.. with a side of plot and pining

we're on a highway to hell (with a little bit of heaven) by dabblingwithwords Mature (I would say Explicit) 107,557 Hydra has had Peter in their custody for three years. Deadpool is hired to break him out. Throw in an alien symbiote, motels, and superhero explosions and things get gay.

I don't remember a lot of the details of this fic but it is THE spideypool fic for me. this fic stuck with me for so long. i read it when i first got into spideypool - then the second time around - and i might read it again it was that good.

Dissonance by stuckybarnes Mature 121,395 Wherein Deadpool is reluctantly hired to protect Peter Parker from an organization out to hunt him, with varying success on both ends and quite a lot of feelings, revelations, and identity crises.

i recently re-read this and its fun. its a bodyguard fic with spideypool and secret identities.

Dead Men Walking (series) by doctorestranged Explicit 235,937 When a series of murders take place, Peter Parker goes undercover in Sister Margaret’s to get intel on Tony Stark’s prime suspect: Deadpool. Peter goes in hoping to get enough information so that Spider-Man can save the day, but like everything in Peter’s life, it becomes a bit more complicated than that and it soon becomes apparent that he might not be the best fit for the job.

I remember very little about this series other than this made me spend a week hyperfixating on book binding because i was willing to kill to get my hands on a physical copy of this.

The Amazing Deadpool by harrytiptoe Mature 481,270 Basically a rewrite of the first Deadpool movie mixed with The Amazing Spider-Man movies (AKA what if they were the love interest in each other’s movies). What if Wade had changed his plan and Peter had been the one delivering pizza to Jeremy the stalker.

hear me out on this one - it set pre-deadpool and during the amazing spider-man. its a self indulgent fic for those who wanted to see more of mercenary wade wilson who threatens the pizza guy and more gayness from tasm. the sequel does go into deadpool 1 but it hasn't been finished yet. this is an epic length fic that i have finished twice and started over again i love it that much but its definitely not for everyone. its got a weird age gap with peter being 18 and not out of high school and i know some people don't like wade with no scars. don't come at me lol.

thats all for now folks.. will probably update this in the future

originally posted: 8/13/2024

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callmewhateveruwanticantthink

2 years ago

Tale As Old As Time... (Part 2)

Well, the reaction to the first part was … overwhelming. Which is good because my brain has taken this idea and hurtled at maximum speed. I am hanging on for dear life. I hope I survive the experience. And I hope none of you decide to jump ship, though I understand if you do. 😅

Here is Chapter 2 of God only knows how many, it is more than 4. I can assure you of that. You know that one gif of the cartoon laying the tracks in front of it as the train is going full speed? That’s what this story is going to be. Please excuse any bumps that may be present.

This chapter is more… tone setting? It might be boring compared to the first part, but I promise you chapter 3 will make up for it. (I hope). Here we go!

(Part 1)

///

Where were we? Oh Right. The story is just starting isn’t it. I think it is time I take a backseat and let the story play out.

Jai let Bhairava say goodbye to the princess. Mithravinda begged Bhairava to do something, to plan a way out of this, he cannot possibly be thinking of just letting that monster to whatever he wanted to him.

Bhairava did not tell her he didn’t think he could put up a fight anyways. He could feel those eyes. Could feel their heat on the back of his neck. He was sure his wolf was watching him.

Bhairava gave Mithravinda a kiss on the forehead, even feeling that was too indecorous. His teeth chattered as a cold breeze cut through him. Though this kingdom lay so close to Udaigarh, the atmosphere was much more cold. He shivered as the wind tore through his simple cotton shirt and pyjamas.

He bowed to Sher Khan’s nephew as the man came into view on the other side of the gate. He has only heard of the man. Knew he is a good man. Not like Ranadev. He would care for Mithravinda. And he prayed the princess would return his affections. She deserved to be happy. Even if his own future was so uncertain right now.

He wiped Mithravinda’s tears away and placed her hand in her rightful groom’s. It ached, but the pain was not nearly as sharp as before. And despite them being at least a couple kilometers away from the palace, Bhairava would swear he could feel the burning gaze still.

Keep reading

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callmewhateveruwanticantthink

3 months ago

I could talk for hours about the finale of Black Sails, but especially how masterful of a choice it was to have Jack narrate the final episode. I love him, and this is such a beautifully fitting end to his story. Someone once said that Black Sails is a show where no one gets what they want. That the man who has spent his whole life obsessed with making a name for himself — to the point that he risks his chance at wealth and freedom and life to keep that name —, is now telling the story of someone else, a story in which his part is hardly mentioned it at all, is a just the last in a near-endless line of amazing narrative choices.

And what’s perhaps the most interesting is he very well could have altered the tale. He says aloud something Silver and Flint have seemingly always known: it doesn’t matter whether the story is true when it’s told, it only matters if people believe it. It would have been easy to insert himself into a grander role in that story. To paint himself as a key player in the final events that went down on the island. In the fate of the Urca gold. (And given that he was technically the one who recovered it, it wouldn’t be unwarranted.) But he doesn’t.

He’s always been one of my favorite characters. Jack the schemer. Jack the clever fool. Jack who doesn’t know when to quit. Jack who is so unflinchingly loyal, despite the lies and schemes that surround him. Jack who cannot let things go. Jack who was told that he would never sail under the black again and is now the only one still doing it. Jack who loves art. Who appreciates its power. (“Fine art has felled empires.”) Of COURSE he would be the one to close out this story. When you look at it, despite the irony, there really never was any other option of who would tell this story. And that’s one of the most beautiful things about Black Sails. How despite being able to trace each and every choice that led the characters to their final fates, despite the twists and turns and surprises, somehow, at the end of it all, it all feels inevitable. Like any true tragedy should. In a good way. Like everyone is ending up exactly where they belong, for better or worse.

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callmewhateveruwanticantthink

2 years ago

Sita: We need a distraction.

Bheem: Is anyone here good at jumping up and down and making weird noises?

Ram, whispering: My time has come

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