Oh Pride! The happiest weekend of the year in terms of fanfic/silly content. The saddest weekend of the year in terms of not having loud drunk people sit next to me on the train. At least this year I have no reason to leave the house (my church lemonade stand/marching group can get along without me!), so I can just huddle up indoors and work on my epic Pride themed fanfic. I’m going to try to hit all the letters, L and G and B and T and Q and maybe H. If Indian film isn’t going to serve that audience, it is up to me to fill in the gap! Anyway, a great TGIF post topic, I think we can all agree.
Reema Kagti and Zoya Akhtar are just the cutest couple EVER!!!! And I would apologize for outing them, but come on. I don’t think they are exactly hiding. Unless they really are just best friends for decades who live together and do everything together and hold hands all the time?
And they seem so happy together!
Switching genders, and from reality to fiction, we all know that John and Abhishek’s characters got past their issues and got together about 6 months after Dostana was over, right?
Not that I think they were closeted or anything, but I think they were both probably a little bi (aren’t we all?) and it’s pretty clear that kiss unlocked something.
And that something was missing, since they never wanted to settle down or get serious with any woman, but had no problem building a life with each other.
Going back to reality, I know I don’t usually do videos in these posts, but if you haven’t seen this one, it is an absolute MUST! Two celebrities who are officially not gay (or at least, officially in love with and committed to their wives) but also comfortable being casual about their sexuality in public, finally meet and give the world the image it so craves.
And over to the ladies for a moment. Personally, my against the grain reading of KKHH is that Kajol is a stand in for Karan/a shy young gay man and it is the SRKajol romance that codes as queer (best friend yaar). But there is a strong contingent which sees the Kajol-Rani situation as a butch-femme kind of thing. Which works, I suppose, if you remove Shahrukh from the picture below entirely. And forget they are cousins in real life.
Speaking of common against the grain readings, shower scene in Silsila anyone? Where they actually have a blink and you’ll miss it “drop the soap” joke?
Back to real life! Zoya and Reema are the younger generation, but we also have the elegant older generation to look to. Rekha and Farzana, together for over two decades. Very classy looking couple.
Even back in the day when they first got together.
One more real life example! Although they are just friends, not a couple (although my fanfic suggests more!). I do love the whole Karan-Manish vibe though.
Speaking of people Karan could be dating but isn’t, I also kind of like his vibe with Ayan Mukherjee. But Ayan, unfortunately, seems to have some kind of something with Ranbir Kapoor right now (unrequited crush, I am guessing). So that’s not happening (again, unless you read my fanfic)
(So cute together!)
Let’s see, have I done everything/everybody? I think so! It’s time for the grand finale. One of the all time greatest and sexiest jodis in Indian film. Saif and Akshay!!!! So cute together!
With that fun kind of opposites attract fighting all the time sort of chemistry.
But it’s also way sexy.
Super super sexy
And floral
And sometimes kind of sweet:
But mostly sexy
(why is Kareena here? Who is interested in her?)
This is a fantastic post! Thanks for writing.
LikeLike
There are SO MANY pride posts coming
LikeLike
Karan and Manish are “just friends”? HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA. They were the first “unofficial” couple I read about when I got into Bollywood.
I thought you were going to write about films with a gay theme or gay characters, but I guess not.
LikeLike
Again, I have to go back to Karan’s autobiography. He confesses to hiring a callboy at one point, so I really don’t think he would have tried to hide a relationship with Manish. Instead he is very clear that they have always been just friends. While also making it clear to the reader that Manish and he are both gay, so he’s not trying to cover anything up, just tell the truth.
It’s just a fascinating book! How he makes us understand things without officially coming out of the closet.
On Fri, Jun 23, 2017 at 7:06 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLike
ARE THERE enough Indian movies with a gay theme or gay characters to fill an entire blog post? Because I just feel sad.
LikeLike
Also, I am looking forward to your writing day tomorrow. Do you have a good idea of what you are going to write about?
LikeLike
Tubelight! And I have to watch and write about my Monday and Tuesday posts for next week.
Although actually, I am going on a car adventure with a friend tomorrow, so my writing will be more early morning and late evening. Don’t feel bad if I don’t respond to comments!
On Fri, Jun 23, 2017 at 7:12 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLike
Have fun on your car adventure! (Which is a very novel phrase. What’s a car adventure? A road trip but dangerously?)
LikeLike
I like in the city, so any time i take my car out for more than a weekly grocery store run, it is an adventure!
LikeLike
I was thinking about maybe putting up a quick list of all I could think about if people were curious. But, I would have to include stuff like Zanjeer (for Pran), a list of straight up movies-with-gay-characters would just be, like, 3.
On Fri, Jun 23, 2017 at 7:12 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLike
There are at least a dozen, but I can’t give you the titles off the top of my head (since nowadays I have a bad memory for names).
LikeLike
If you were to write that post, you will have at least one reader!
LikeLike
So, I once spent a lot of time thinking about how Kuch Kuch Hota Hai works wonderfully as a queer text, especially by focusing on the Anjali-Tina dynamic, and I made this video to highlight both the incredibly queer subtext of the lines in the movie, as well as the dynamic between Anjali and Tina which lends itself v easily to other readings!
https://vimeo.com/190422412/description
And while I was working on that, I found that someone else had done something similar with Main Hoon Na here:
Queer interpretations of Bollywood movies are so interesting!
LikeLike
I LOVE THESE!!!!! I am updating my annual slashfic PRide post right now to include them.
LikeLike
Done! you have vastly improved the post:
https://dontcallitbollywood.com/2017/06/25/happy-pride-my-annual-slashfic-celebration/
LikeLike