This article is written by Sanjana Jain, a student of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi. This article talks about the storyline, applauses, and criticism of Zee5 original movie Section 377 Ab Normal. This article also talks about whether the movie has done justice with a topic this sensitive.
Table of Contents
Introduction
There is a complex relationship between Section 377 and the people of India, as first, it criminalized, then decriminalized, then again recriminalized, and then finally decriminalized in the 2018 landmark judgment with regard to consensual same-sex relationships. The historic judgment passed by the Supreme Court in 2018 that abolish Section 377 of IPC that decriminalized homosexual relationships, turned to be a triggering point for the director Faruk Kabir. His movie Section 377 Ab Normal is available on Zee5 and it mainly focuses on the problems faced by the LGBT community.
It’s a very sensitive topic and still, a large number of people cannot accept the fact that people of the same sex can have relationships with each other the same way a heterosexual woman and man can. After all, love is love, love has no gender. But the voice of the LGTBQ community was silenced for many years, just because of the fact that their sexual orientation is different from the majority.
According to Faruk Kabir, the director of the movie Section 377 Ab Normal, this movie primarily is for the heterosexual population of India. Also, he said that while making the movie he kept in mind the sensitivity of the topic. He has made this movie for the whole country to understand that, LGBT people in love feel no different than any other person, human emotions are the same only sexual preferences are different. These people have to first deal with their sexuality, which is an internal fight, then deal with family, then there is a social taboo as well.
“In India, it is not easy for a law to get abolished. I wanted to know who started this case and how they managed to do it. I started researching it more and more and got to know that the first petition was filed 17 years ago. It’s a journey of ordinary people, who decided to do an extraordinary thing of getting the law abolished”, Faruk said.
The movie 377 Ab Normal is a multi-plot narrative with stories that are inspired by the struggles of many real-life people from different walks of life. This movie includes a cast of actors like Zeeshan Ayub, Kumud Mishra, Tanvi Azmi, Shashank Arora, and Maanvi Gagroo.
Summary of the movie
Faruk Kabir’s movie Section 377 Ab Normal shows the years of litigation took to abolish Section 377 and decriminalize homosexuality. It depicts the life of those people who were most affected by Section 377 for years. The movie is inspired by the case in 2018 i.e Navtej Singh Johar V. Union of India, where a Five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court listened to the pleas of five petitioners for four days continuously. In this movie, Faruk Kabir portrays the journey of LGBTQ community members, giving the audience a glimpse of the struggles, hardships, and harassment that these people suffer in order to get justice at the Supreme Court on 6 September 2018.
The movie depicts real events that occurred in LGBT history in India, along with the authentic characters. One of the characters taken from real life is Keshav Suri, son of Lalit Suri, a renowned hotelier, and heir of the Lalit Group of Hotels. He is shown as gay in the movie and he is proud of it. What triggers Keshav Suri to take legal help in order to fight against Homophobia, most noticeably, Section 377, was the growing cases of homophobic attacks on the gay community, including the one that happened in the Colorado gay club. Actor Sid Makkar plays the role of Keshav Suri in the movie.
The role of the lawyer of Keshav Suri was played by Mohan Kapoor, who takes up his case with great enthusiasm. In the Supreme Court, the case was filed by Keshav Suri and 5 other petitioners, the case was named Navtej Singh Johar and Ors. V. Union of India. The petitioners in real life were the dancer Navtej Singh Johar, the journalist Sunil Mehra, the chef Ritu Dalmia, and the hoteliers Aman Nath and Keshav Suri, and the businesswoman Ayesha Kapoor, but this movie only features Keshav Suri from the above petitioners, rest of them are fictionalized characters.
The role of the lawyer of the Union of India was played by Kumud Mishra (Narendra Kaushal), in the whole movie he argues not to abolish Section 377 and criminalize homosexual relationships.
The movie goes into the flashback mode, showing the past of other petitioners. The central story is based on Lucknow man, Arif Jafar (Zeeshan Ayyub), who was the first person to be arrested under Section 377 in 2001. Arif Jafar was the founder of “Bharosa Trust”, an NGO that provides information and counseling on AIDS. He was also an AIDS, HIV and gay rights activist, besides being a homosexual himself, this reason was enough for police to take him to jail. Because of the convincing arguments put by the lawyer Narendra Kaushal, Jafar was charged with engaging in sexual activities that are against the order of nature, and was confined for 17 years in jail for propagating ideas of “unnatural sex”.
After this, we were introduced to many other gay and lesbian characters, that were mostly fictional, fictional they may be, but they were very closely related to the story that is faced by every LGBT person. Another part of the story revolves around Pallav (Shashank Arora) who was a teenager, who is coming in terms with his sexuality, then he turns out to be a famous gay activist. Kaizad Kotwal played the role of Ashok Row Kavi in this movie and he was the one who helped Pallav to deal with his family’s non-acceptance of his homosexuality.
Maanvi Gagroo (Shalmali) played the role of a lesbian in this movie, a college romance was shown in the movie between Shalmali and her friend Nisha while watching a play on Ismat Chughtai’s Lihaaf. When Shalmali tells her mother (Tanvi Azmi) about her being lesbian, she was shocked and upset initially, but then later on she accepts her daughter’s sexuality whole-heartedly.
After showing the past, the movie returns to the present, where the honourable Supreme Court of India pronounces its Judgement, of abolishing Section 377 of IPC and legalizing same-sex relationships. The five judges who pronounce the judgment were based on the actual judges who passed this historic judgment, namely, CJI Dipak Misra, Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman, Justice A. M. Khanwilkar, Justice D. Y. Chandrachud, and Justice Indu Malhotra.
Does this movie justify such a sensitive topic
According to me yes.
The movie within its 1 hour and 33 minutes runtime, was truly able to capture the real struggles that the LGBTQ community has faced for years, without twisting any major events of the original timeline, the movie was true to its original story.
In this movie, we not only get to see the arguments that were put in the Supreme Court but also get to experience the struggles that were faced by these five petitioners, who challenged the IPC Section 377.
In the movie, the first petitioner Arif Zafar is the founder of the “Bharosa Trust” an NGO in Lucknow, the police accused him of running a prostitution racket instead of an NGO for the prevention of HIV AIDS and arrested him, after being in jail also he was badly harassed by other inmates. After getting out of jail, Arif Zafar decided to fight for the LGBTQ community and take this fight to the honourable Supreme Court of India. The movie later on, tells the struggles faced by several other petitioners also.
Beautifully captured shots
The symbolism in the film hits you hard in the very first shot of the movie where there was a pink flower that was surrounded by a bunch of yellow flowers, showing that a human different from society is still a human. Another beautiful shot was that of a flock of birds, representing free-spirited souls, which was shown either flying in the air or painted on the walls. All the credits go to the cinematographer of this movie. The movie takes care not to overburden the audience with information, it has shown the facts and judgment evenly.
The movie shows the story from 2001, when the Lucknow man Arif Zafar after being arrested, became the first person in India to be arrested under IPC Section 377 for “unnatural acts”. Also the story of Keshav, a businessman was shown how he fights for the rights of the LGBTQ community people. The stories of all these individuals finally come to an end in 2018 when the Supreme Court abolishes IPC Section 377 and decriminalizes homosexuality.
Power-packed performances
The cast consisting of actors such as Sid Makkar, Maanvi Gagroo, Tanvi Azmi, Zeeshan Ayyub, Kumud Mishra, and Shashank Arora, truly makes you feel the emotions with their superb acting skills and convincing dialogue delivery. Special applause must go to Zeeshan Ayyub, who with his wonderful performance as Arif Zafar won all our hearts. Viewers would have liked a little more of Tanvi Azmi in the movie, but even her small role left a major impact on us. In this movie, the life of two youngsters i.e Shalmili and Pallav are shown, which are played by Maanvi Gagroo and Shashank Arora.
The College romance of Shalmili was shown beautifully with her friend Neha in the movie, they are seen romancing while watching the play on Ismat Chughtai Lihaaf. While on the other hand problems were shown between Pallav and his partner, as the latter does not want to take it further, thinking that their parents will never allow their relationship. Later both the youngsters i.e. Shalmili and Pallav tell their parents about them. Pallav’s father did not accept his relationship and forced him to visit a counsellor to get rid of this “disease”. While on the other hand, Shalmili’s mother understands her daughter and goes to the court to file a petition to abolish IPC Section 377 and decriminalize homosexuality.
In order to keep the movie as real as they can, newspaper clippings and television broadcasts are shown from time to time. The scene of the final judgment leaves you with chills and makes you truly appreciate the patience and courage kept by petitioners and the LGBTQ community.
Criticism faced by this movie
While the movie was made with a lot of hard work, it barely shows the actual route to the significant victory of the LGBT community in India, the actual battle was the one which was fought in the court, which the movie showed in a very brief and vague manner. In the movie, the concept of “‘Pink Economy” was mentioned by Suri and his lawyer, which was also the main point of argument in the petitioner’s repertoire. But the writers of the movie did not care to explain in the movie what the Pink Economy is all about, viewers have to google the term in order to understand it which causes confusion among them.
A major portion of the movie shows the backstories of other LGBT characters which result in no learning for the viewer regarding how the case was fought in court and how it was won. In the movie, the chief petitioner i.e Navtej Singh Johar, along with other petitioners were highly ignored, the main focus was only on Keshav Suri, and that too, very briefly.
The only thing that left an impact in the entire runtime of the movie was the brilliant acting skills of Zeeshan Ayyub who played the role of Arif Jafar. The backstories of other characters suffer from a lack of proper characterization and seem to be written in hurry. Thus according to many viewers, the movie can be better by a stronger storyline and a powerful script.
Conclusion
The movie 377 Ab Normal tells beautifully a very important story of an LGBTQ community that has been silenced for years. The best thing about the movie was the idea of the inclusion of the actual dialogues delivered by the bench of five judges while delivering the judgment, especially the one quoted by Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra, “I am what I am, so take me as I am”. Even if you know everything about the judgment passed by the Supreme Court and the struggles that petitioner faced against Section 377, still the movie is a must-watch for the fact that it treated the subject so sensitively and beautifully. A big thanks to Zee5 originals for bringing the historically important event of life in cinema so beautifully.
References
- https://www.cinestaan.com/reviews/377-ab-normal-40119
- https://www.iwmbuzz.com/digital/editorial-digital/review-zee5s-377-ab-normal-half-hearted-attempt-dramatize-historic-sc-ruling/2019/03/30
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