Click to play videoMumbai: John Abraham and Abhishek Bachchan are actually straight guys pretending to gay in Karan Johar’s Dostana. But does the film, like many other made on the issue, run the risk of further stereotyping homosexuals?
Homosexuality has been represented in Bollywood many times, often in the form of caricatures of gay men and occasionally a sensitive portrayal in films like My Brother Nikhil and Rules Pyaar Ka Superhit Formula.
Dostana, however, addresses the subject more directly, with its leading men playing a pretend-gay couple.
Reviews from critics have been mixed, and the gay community is similarly divided in their opinion.
"It’s the same old story, portraying guys as effeminate, sex-starved men who cannot control their libidos. It’s not something we have not seen before," says Nitin Karani, trustee of Humsafar Trust, an NGO working with homosexuals.
So while some feel let down by the film's portrayal, others hope that with time the portrayal of gays in Hindi cinema will become more sensitive.
"This is the first wave, I don’t know whether they do more harm because they are somewhat stereotypical, but there is hope that someday they will be more accepting to nuanced characters and different narratives,” says editorial director, Verve magazine, Parmesh Shahani.
It’s been a mixed bag of reactions from the gay community and perhaps it will take some time before Bollywood can come out with a “real” portrayal of gay community in a film. For now though, the makers of Dostana are raking in the moolah this weekend.
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