An understanding of sexual fluidity via Rituparno Ghosh as the protagonist

RITUPARNO GHOSH – AN INTRODUCTION

Born on the 31^st of august in the year 1963, Rituparno Ghosh a Bengali filmmaker was considered an icon for the LGBT community in India. He explored the ‘third gender’ lifestyle during the last several years of his life. He began his career as a copywriter in Kolkata. Ghosh made his directorial debut in 1992 with the film Hirer Angti based on the novel by Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay. He had called Satyajit Ray his mentor, though has not really adopted his style of work. He calls Ray an inspiration for himself to be a director.

Films like Abohoman, Chokher Bali, Shob charitra kalponik (all characters fictitious), Bariwali, Raincoat, Antarmahal, The last Lear, Unishe April and many more have earned him several National awards and he is hence recognized for his distinctive style of work. He has glorified womanhood in his films and has portrayed his understanding of the woman psyche. In his last films he addressed issues of homosexuality and gender.

Sexual fluidity, ambiguity of sexuality, the third gender all are the same as Transgender meaning the state of one's gender identity or gender expression not matching one's assigned sex. Transgender is independent of sexual orientation. This presentation highlights Rituparno Ghosh when other examples could have been taken because the country has rarely seen the heights of success and boldness as Ghosh has shown.

A PART OF AN INTERVIEW

On an interview by THE TELEGRAPH, KOLKATA (December 22, 2010), Rituparno Ghosh was questioned about his portrayal as a cross dresser.

“Your cross-dressing has always raised eyebrows. Will Aarekti Premer Galpo give people more reason to talk about the ambiguity of your sexuality?”

To this Ghosh responded that he enjoys the gender fluidity and has no intention of converting his body to a female’s body. All the speculation about him approaching femininity and breast augmentation does not hold as he celebrates staying in ‘between’. “I don’t consider myself a woman and I don’t want to become a woman” he said. He did not like the concept of unisex being monopolized by women. “Wearing earrings and necklaces have been a part of Indian history and tradition. These were tagged as feminine frills during colonial rule and I don’t see anything wrong in reinstating it. My point is why I shouldn’t celebrate my sexuality?” explained Rituparno Ghosh.

Arekti Premer Golpo (just another love story)

INTRODUCTION

Arekti Premer Golpo (Just another love story), directed by Kaushik Ganguly and Rituparno Ghosh is about a cross dresser filmmaker, Abhiroop Sen (played by Ghosh himself) who wishes to create a documentary on the forgotten theatre actor Chapal Bhaduri. He is probably the last living female imitator of the Bengali folk theatre called jatra. Rituparno played both characters of a gay filmmaker and young Chapal Bhaduri. In doing so, the viewer is able to connect the characters going through a similar journey. While Chapal Bhaduri faced a severe ostracism, Abhiroop Sen is more socially accepted due to his success and the generation he lives in.  But there is still a long way to go.

The film begins with an introduction to ‘Chapal Bhaduri’, a forgotten ‘diva’. He used to dress up as a woman (mostly a Goddess) and performed during his time. But as he got old and weak, he lost his fame. He would agree to do documentaries and interviews to gain some financial stability.  One such filmmaker named Abhiroop Sengupta approaches Chapal Bhaduri along with his crew to shoot a documentary on him.

For quiet sometime in the beginning of the film, the song “poro jonomey hoio Radha” (in next life, be ‘Radha’) is played in the background which can be interpreted as a symbol for the nature’s mistake while creating Chapal Bhaduri.

Abhiroop Sengupta played by Rituparna himself portrays a cross dresser who faces challenges put in front by the neighborhood people where Chapal Da lives. But against all odds he is able to complete the shoot. Also enters the character of Uday Narayan Chopra who takes the crew from Kolkata to Hetampur (new location). The film continues giving a hint of Uday’s attraction towards Abhiroop.

ABHIROOP SENGUPTA – CHARACTER SKETCH

A gay, cross dresser and a successful filmmaker attached to his mother. Mother is the prominent support system for Abhiroop Sengupta. The character calls himself a “non believer” that implies his disappointment towards God for making him totally different outside from what he is inside.

He is bold enough to accept his gender fluidity but constantly fights a battle with the society that lives under certain prejudice. He is in an intimate relationship with a member of the core production team who happens to be married. His insecurity with the relationship is clear since marriage (a heterosexual relationship) holds more value, morally as well as legally, in a civilized society.

He connects himself to Chapal Bhaduri very easily while rest of the crew is indifferent towards him. He understands the pressure and the pain Chapal Da must have gone through. He empathizes the artist’s sufferings in his relationship with another man and the embarrassment later felt in his profession.

The filmmaker’s character develops as his attraction grows towards Uday. His desire to receive attention and the disappointment for not being able to get it creates an attachment between Abhiroop and Uday while distance between him and Indraneil (partner).

CHAPAL BHADURI’S FATE

Losing his mother in a tender age, the sensitive Chapal grew up to be a jatra performer. He is close to his elder sister, who happens to be understanding in his own words. Though initially it was just an attraction, Chapal falls in love with a regular visitor, ‘Kumar babu’ who was married and had children. The relationship was cruel, as it benefited only one side.

Chapal was soon told to leave the jatra by his boss, as his need was now less – Girls were now joining this form of art. Further his sexuality was questioned by several. Chapal now rented a room with Rs 60 per month; money was naturally a limited support. Kumar Babu would come and go, making remarks about his poor lifestyle, humiliating his independence and calling him “false”.

The documentary continues as Chapal Bhaduri is told to move out of the rented house by the landlord. Kumar babu was of no help, leaving all his furniture only with a bag on his shoulder, Chapal left for Tarapith. There he meets the manager (Tushar) of a local dharmashala who provides a place to stay. Time went by Chapal  stayed there,  Tushar’s attraction and concern for Chapal now can be seen when one day Kumar Babu appeared.

Begged Chapal to come with him as Rani, his wife fell too sick to even get up from her bed. Chapal leaving Tarapith against Tushar’s wishes arrives at Kumar Babu’s place, where he shopped, cooked, cleaned, and sent the kids to school. At first he felt as the mistress but later he knew, he was just an old maid called upon in need. But Chapal gets fond of the sick wife, he realizes her state any day is worse that his own heartache. ‘Rani’ (the wife) feels more alive now, than she ever felt with her own husband. The developing friendship between the two characters seems to be inevitable.

Chapal then leaves the family in search of his destiny. Years later, present day, he receives a letter from ‘Rani’ asking him to come and meet her. Chapal’s story ends with a Tagore song.

‘Infuse my spirit, slake my thirst

Give me more and more life, life divine.

In your universe, wherein you dwell,

Make a space for me, more sublime’

MEMORIES IN MARCH  

Washington DC, March 31, 2011 (Washington Bangla Radio) internationally acclaimed Indian film-maker Rituparno Ghosh chats with Devashish Ray about the film Memories in March written by Ghosh and in which Ghosh appears as an actor playing a lead role.

Memories in March is directed by Sanjay Nag and stars Deepti Naval, Rituparno Ghosh and Raima Sen in leading roles.

Ghosh, being a director himself says the film is a project that they (the cast and crew) believed in, and though there are some directorial concerns, they do not bother him. Ghosh believes people across the world will love him, even rejoice in it, given the film has a message.

About his thoughts on the gradual discovery of a mother of her son’s sexual identity (after the accidental death of the son), Ghosh describes the story as being very intimate among three people. The mother is a complete stranger in the city her son lived in. She starts the process of gathering of her son’s belongings. And the film is not just about the discovery of her son having been gay (she has great difficulty accepting her son’s sexuality), but also about how the mother feels she is, being a blood relation, should have the strongest claim to the memories of her son. Perhaps it is best to leave it that way, says Ghosh.

THE THREE LEAD CHARACTERS

THE MOTHER – AARTI (PLAYED BY DEEPTI NAVAL)

Aarti describes herself as a conservative woman. She can scarcely begin to accept her son’s sexual orientation and echoes the common belief that homosexuality is a psychological disorder that can be cured with counseling and medication. But while her moral values are traditional, her personality is decidedly modern and in many ways, more liberated than most women.

Throughout the film, one can witness her immense dignity. When Sahana (office colleague of the son) asks her if she’d like to stay over, Aarti firmly refuses and spends the night alone in her dead son’s apartment. She does the same when the office offers to pick up the tab for her air ticket. She as matter-of-fact calls up her ex husband in the US more than once, and leaves messages on his answering machine, trying to inform him about their son’s death. But when Ornob (boss and the son’s lover) hesitates to part with sketches and photographs pinned on Siddhart’s (the son) office tag board, she loses her cool and vents her fury on him, leading him to describe her outburst as ‘melodramatic’.

ORNOB (PLAYED BY RITUPARNO GHOSH)

Ornob is a very opinionated man. He’s so in face of being judged and labeled by society at large. At one point he asks Aarti, “which of the two is more acceptable to you- that Siddhart is dead or that he was gay?” Or then, it is the fact that he never trusted his mother enough to confide in her about his relationship and that she finally had to get details from an unsent mail drafted on his mobile phone?

Ornob’s one breakdown scene is brilliantly written. He visits Aarti at the apartment to give her the things she wanted from Sid’s office desk. Aarti, who’s also a calmer after spending the night mulling over the dreadful (for her) revelation asks him to keep everything except a photograph of her from her younger day. Ornob refuses to part with it saying it defines Sid’s mother to him – the woman Sid loved so dearly and described so fondly and in such detail; and who, he says, may look like the woman sitting before him, but is nothing like her at all.

SHAHANA (PLAYED BY RAIMA SEN)

The third important player in this drama is Siddhart’s colleague Shahana, whose own feelings for Aarti’s son are almost as intense as the other two, but she is practical, sensible and far less caught up with the emotion. Even when she tells Aarti about her long-standing crush on siddharth, she’s matter-of-fact about being rejected.

CHITRANGADA

In Mahabharata, Arjuna while in exile, when arrived in the lands of Manipur (somewhere near kalinga, not where today Manipur is) met an extra ordinarily beautiful lady who turned out to be a princess and the only child of the king. Arjuna was conditioned that he would not be able to take her to Hastinapura after the wedding when he met the king with the proposal of marriage. Since he had no heir to the throne, the son born from the union would rule the future Manipur. Arjuna agreed to this, and for one year he and chitrangada spent a happy life and gave birth to Babruvahana. Arjuna left Manipura and never witnessed his son’s growing up but he did come face to face later in his life while Babruvahana rode a horse to Manipur intended for the Aswamedha.

Rabindra Nath Tagore adapted the story of Mahabharata and reinvented it with his own interpretations.  The king of the kingdom Manipura received Lord Shiva’s boon, that only men would take birth in his family. But that did not happen as Chitrangada was born. So, he decided to up bring his only child, a daughter as a warrior. She was taught to be a prince who learnt politics and the art of sword fighting; this implies a “troubled gender” (The term as used by Rituparno ghosh in an interview on the show TARA MUZIC TOLLY UNCUT). The warrior princess when saw the handsome Arjuna in a forest challenged him for a fight which he, being a Brahmachari refused. This incident made Chitrangada question her masculinity. She felt the urge to become a woman who she was, biologically, but not mentally.  Fearing that Arjuna would reject her for being manly, Chitrangada approaches ‘Madan’, the God of love to make her more womanly. Arjuna instantly falls in love with the beautiful lady.

When Manipura was attacked, the people cried for their protector’s help. Chitrangada realizing her duties now again asks ‘Madan’ to transform her into her original form. Arjuna was even more impressed and falls in love twice with the same person. Thus, he loves her for what she is and not the woman she pretends to be.

CHITRANGADA – THE CROWNING WISH

This is the tale of Rudra, a choreographer who is staging Tagore’s dance drama Chitrangada and his relationship with a drummer (Partho). Rudra decides to go for breast augmentation and sex change surgery to become a woman, so that they can adopt a baby. The film revolves around on the questions; does this decision help in solving the problem? Would the surgery be enough to strengthen the relationship?

It is a film that holds a mirror to progressive society that is still fumbling about how to handle homosexuality. It educates without being preachy about the same sex relationships. One might even call it a personal film. But at the end, this film can’t be ignored in the context of Indian cinema.

Merging myth with reality, This Ghosh film throws up a lot of questions, answering a few while leaving the rest open to interpretations. How difficult is it for the parents to come to terms with the fact that their son is gay? How difficult is it for a gay man to be told time and again that he ought to see a doctor to cure himself? and how traumatically hollow is it for a male couple to feel that will never be allowed to adopt a baby even when they know that biologically they can never have a living product of their love?

For some the film could seem like an excuse to use the premise of the Chitrangada myth and add a dash of magic realism to finally prove a point. But for the rest, Chitrangada can be viewed as a film that would evolve a viewer. The film goes beyond surface level explorations of the dilemma of which gender to use to address a man in the process of being a woman.

The film portrays a deep relation between a mother and the son (Rudra), evident from a touching scene when the former with concern says “I gave birth to this body, which is yours. I have a right to know, whatever goes on in this body. I have a right to know if it is changing, transforming…”

THEREFORE,

‘Chitrangada’, a character from Mahabharata has been interpreted again and again. In the epic she is just a princess in a kingdom that had no sons. She could provide an heir.

For Tagore she is a warrior princess. While Rituparno embraces the quality of ‘troubled gender’. Abhiroop, a male character in the film wishes to celebrate ‘his’ femininity.

CONCLUSION 

Each film treats homosexuality differently. The characters are very much different from each other, mentally and as well as professionally. While Arekti premer golpo describes a successful yet lonely, strong yet in secured Abhiroop Sengupta, Memories in March describes an established man who could not confide in his mother about his sexuality. There is a hint of distrust towards his mother, but a longing for her love is evident.

In both the films, mother plays an important role in the protagonist’s life. The former character calls his mother several times in a day, even if it is just to ask about her meals. The latter develops a bond with his dead lover’s mother, probably in search of his own.

Chitrangada redefines the already very popular character. A cross dresser choreographer disciplined and established falls in love with a percussionist. The drummer is a junkie, a raw talent that has no focus in his life. This relationship grows and revolves around many insecurities and confusions, which ultimately leads to Rudra’s (lead character) decision for sex change. Here in the film, the role of the mother is prominent in a way that Rudra is attached to her. But father is the character he is disappointed with. 

Remembering Sparrows, Reminding Dodo.

The coming generation or probably the one after that might see sparrows in pictures and not feeding upon grains. While the planet is already challenged by global warming, ozone layer depletion, climatic changes, deforestation, air, water and land pollution, extinction of tigers and danger to wildlife as a whole, we are slapped on our faces with yet another disturbing fact that sparrows once that were in abundance greeting ‘good morning’ is now an endangered species.

In Delhi, while pigeons and crows have crowded the streets and the sky, the little brown birds have disappeared noticeably. People now in their twenties can actually compare the difference.

Dwarka in South West Delhi witnesses different kinds of birds, thankfully Sparrows being one of them.  ‘Umar – The Chai Wala’ (Tea stall) near the campus of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University is visited by large number of Parrots, Pigeons, Sparrows etc.

With the Najafgarh drain bird sanctuary not far away that becomes a refuge to thousands of migratory water birds every winter, a delightful sight of birds can be witnessed. Within National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT) this water-way is misclassified as a mere drain, in fact, it is the continuation of Sahibi River and an elongation of the Najafgarh jheel Lake and is a tributary to River Yamuna. Winter months are the best time to visit it to see many flocks of wintering water birds along its length and breadth.

The sparrow, once the exemplar of a commonplace bird, is becoming increasingly rare in France and other European countries. French ornithologists have now charted a steep decline in Paris and other French cities. There has been an even sharper fall in urban populations in Germany, the Czech Republic, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Finland. As in Britain, where sparrow numbers are believed to have fallen by 90 per cent in the past 15 years, continental ornithologists can find no coherent explanation for the sudden decline. The mystery is especially deep in Paris, which is believed to have lost 200,000 sparrows.

Sparrows being slowly wiped out as our malls and sleek apartment buildings come up in a 'Shining' India further reminds us of another bird species called the Dodo. Large number of these birds were killed for food as in 1505 the Portuguese became the first humans to set foot on the island of Mauritius. Many of the ships that came to Mauritius also had uninvited rats aboard, some of which escaped onto the island. Before humans and other mammals arrived the Dodo bird had little to fear from predators. The rats, pigs and monkeys made short work of vulnerable dodo bird eggs in the ground nests.

The combination of human exploitation and introduced species significantly reduced Dodo bird populations. Within 100 years of the arrival of humans on Mauritius, the once abundant Dodo bird was a rare bird. The Dodo bird is just one of the bird species driven to extinction on Mauritius. Many others were lost in the 19th century when the dense Mauritian forests were converted into tea and sugar plantations.

The last Dodo bird was killed in 1681.