Saturday October 6th, 2007 7:00 PM: Yours Emotionally
Call It Slut
Nishtha Jain, 2006, India, Hindi with English subtitles, 14 minutes, DVD This film is a mini-portrait of a transgender person who is more than a woman. Lakshmi Tripathi, a hijra, has a hilarious and yet acute insight into womanhood as she says: "The joy of being a woman is that you can wrap yourself in six metres of cloth and still appear naked." Confident, beautiful, graceful, magical, bold, wicked, and shocking …that’s Lakshmi for you, Lakshmi who simply "can’t stand hypocrites."
The narrative intersperses Lakshmi’s likes, dislikes, beliefs, and ideologies — a tribute to the beauty of honesty and confession. Lakshmi gives us her opinion on exploitation, the Kamasutra and the government ban on bar girls. "Government did a wonderful thing by banning the dance bars. First, there was one hurdle for the customers wanting to take bar girls to bed … and that was the stage. The government removed this hurdle. Ab yeh stage ko hatake ladki ko sidha bistar pe daal diya," she critiques.
Yours Emotionally
Sridhar Rangayan, 2006, India / UK, English, 83 minutes, DVD Ravi & Paul, two friends from Leicester, end up attending a gay party in the small Indian town of Shimoga, upon an invitation of Ravi's Parsee email-pal Jeh from Mumbai. A genteel dreamer Ravi instantly falls in love with Mani - a dark & handsome local working man.
Ravi and Paul also meet an older male couple, Murthy & Anna, now in their sixties. Murthy has lived in the UK to avoid marriage. When he returns to attend his mother's funeral, his lover Anna (a married man by then) convinces him to stay back. After his wife's death, Anna decides to join Murthy & they run a hotel. Both Ravi & Paul are surprised to meet the older same-sex couple.
Although Ravi can't let go of his newfound love, Mani cannot overcome the vast gap that exists between them. Mani is under constant pressure to get married to a woman. When Ravi asks Mani to accompany him to UK, Mani shows very little willingness. Ravi seeks Murthy & Anna's help, but the couple hide behind words of wisdom and express inability to bring Ravi & Mani together. Tension brews between Ravi & Paul due to sexually charged Mani and the situation highlights some nasty cracks in their friendship... Mani throws in a surprise at the farewell meeting that Ravi's asked for...
Interspersed with flashes of semi-surreal situations - presented through exciting dream sequences - Yours Emotionally unfolds a brightly painted canvas that explores contrasting values within Indian & Western gay sub-cultures.
More information is available at www.yoursemotionally.com Reception
After the films and Q&A, please join us at Mirch Masala Cuisine of India for a reception sponsored by Trikone-Northwest. Mix and mingle with other filmgoers, meet filmmakers, chat with members of Tasveer and Trikone-Northwest. Mirch Masala will generously provide the space, free appetizers and chai. Drinks at no-host bar. Mirch Masala is located at 213 Broadway Ave E at Broadway and E John Street.
* Post film discussion
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