“Aligarh” -
A heart throbbing film
-Kunal Senani
When I finished
watching the film, I was in a great sense of despair and full of emotions. I
literally cried like a child in theatre hall. This film does this to me
and it was painful yet hopeful to watch the story of a professor in Aligarh
University (A.M.U), who is suspended by the AMU for being caught in a sting
operation by a local news channel, in which he was in his bed with a rickshaw
puller in intimacy position. And he was later suspended on the ground of being
homosexual and doing gross conduct (According to the university rules) in the
premises of AMU and later he has to evacuate his apartment given
by University.
Professor Siras (Played by Manoj Bajpai) is a normal person
living his life teaching Marathi literature to kids, sipping alcohol at the end
of the day and listening to Lata Mangeshkar songs to ignore is loneliness.
He is a respectable professor and has won Language
Literature award By Maharshtra Government in the year 2002 and is the only
marathi language professor in whole university canpus and also the chairmen of
Language board in A.M.U.
Despite being playing the character of a homosexual
professor -Manoj Bajpai never intimate and pretend being a “gay” unlike many
other queer characters in many bollywood movies.
Writer, director and the actor himself tried not to
stereotype the character of a gay person like everyone do. After watching
professor Siras on screen, everyone will understand that being gay doesn’t mean
you have to be gentle and sensitive in nature, or subtle in your gesture and
physical appearance. They are also normal human being like us, and it has
nothing to do with their subtlety and sensitivity in gesture and body
moment.
Manoj Bajpai portrayed Professor Siras as a person: Who
loves poetry and literature, and is also a father like figure for example:
(When he said the dialogue- "You are a good boy
Deepu") in his last conversation with Deepu
(Rajkumar Rao) on phone after winning the case.
Writer has portrayed the characters and plot of movie so
subtle and sweet that it evokes a sense of agony and anguish after watching the
struggle of a homosexual person in a city like Aligarh – where in a country
like India; having physical intimacy with a same sex in still penalized and
considered as criminal in nature and one has to go through several difficulties
because of that.
RajKumar Rao Character was also very powerful. He played
the role of Journalist (Dipu Sebastian) who followed the story of Professor
Siras, and evoke the investigation by himself and talk to Siras about the
incident happened that night. Rajkumar played Deepus role in his own way- like
he use to do.
The connection between Deepu(Rajkumar Rao) and
Proffessor sirus(Manoj Bajpayi) is must to see. The written part of the
characters are so originally written it look so mumblecore(as it is a real
story, based on true incidents)
The film illustrates the story of ‘Siras’ so
eloquently to audience that one needs to look into the matter and talk about
it.
My reason for crying after finishing the movie is because I
was moved by the character of the story and relation between a normal reporter
and the Professor. Both are unknown but yet compassionate about the
discrimination done to a homosexual person. The narrative aspect of the movie
moved me so emotionally- that I cried after watching film and it took me into a
feeling of despair and anger, because that’s a hard reality and truth which
prevail in my country, which need to be addressed to end the discrimination.
One needs to watch this film- which raised such a sensitive
issue. The issue of homosexuality is still considered as a taboo and an
institution like AMU – who produced many scholars. Intellect and PhD holders:
considered this topic as unethical and make one life hell by their self moral
policing.
One needs to watch this film to understand the pain and
sufferings of a community, who suffer these miseries of inequality and discrimination
on day to day basis.
Director Hansal Mehta and Script writer Apurva M Asrani has
addressed and raised this issue in public forum by making such a beautiful and
remarkable film with talented leads like Manoj Bajpai and Raj Kumar Rao. Film
which shines with authenticity and emotional heft, which leaves you thinking,
and which says something we should all listen to, especially in these times
when it has become more imperative than ever before: we can be different, but
we are us. It moved me; so it will do to you.
