Section 377 AbNormal : A Case for the LGBTQIA+ Community

But has the ruling or this film helped in creating a space for the LGBTQIA+ Community to be regarded as normal ab (now)?

Section 377 AbNormal is a Zee5 Original Film

Today marks the 5th anniversary of the reading down of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, thereby the Supreme Court of India historically overturning a 150-year-old colonial law to decriminalize homosexuality in India. The day of judgement was 6th September, 2018: a day of celebration for the Indian LGBTQIA+ community.

At the time, I had no idea what being gay really was, or that it was literally illegal to exist as a gay person in India till then. The ruling caused widespread media coverage of the Indian LGBTQIA+ Community and our celebrations. And soon after, in 2019, it was followed by a Zee5 original feature film called Section 377 AbNormal, Ab meaning now in Hindi, referring to the fact that the ruling, and I guess in a way the film is a stepping stone, a tool for social change to normalize the Queer community in India, and assimilate it within the mainstream society by removing the now deep-rooted and widespread stigma that the colonial queerphobia and violence has left in India, a queerphobia that India has now absorbed and claimed as its own ethos, conveniently letting us be prey to its ignorant historical negationism and psuedohistory and culture.

The reading down of Section 377 was also when I realised that I had been living as a “criminal” in my own country just because of an innate identity. An innocent 16 year-old (then) boy, who liked other boys, which he didn’t even know was possible because of the huge block in representation of queer people in India. I grew up detached from the rest of society, always feeling that some part of me is more different than the normal degree of different between my other peers. Even though I saw movies like Dostana, I never understood that boys could like other boys beyond platonic friendship (forget about boys actually being girls), because of their scarce and horrible representation (more like mockery and comic relief).

When I came across the film soon after it released, I was extremely excited to watch it, as it was one of the few Queer themed Indian films I had come across till then. I still remember, how emotional it was to watch it, how thrilling, intense, validating - such a rollercoaster for the point I was at in life then. Probably class 11.

As the IMDb page says, "Inspired by true events, this emotional drama narrates the journey of five petitioners who challenged Section 377. Witness the struggles of the LGBT community, and the landmark judgment that marked the beginning of a new era of equality."

It begins on the judgement day of 6th September, 2018, and goes back and forth between periods from 2001 Lucknow, to the Pulse Club Shooting on 12th June, 2016, to 1993 Mumbai, to the period when homosexuality was briefly decriminalized on 2nd July, 2009 New Delhi to when it was recriminalized in January 2013.

The film creates a chronology of the development of the proceedings that accumulate to the case of Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India which led to the reading down, through these five characters and their motivations and struggles to portray how difficult it was for the Queer community to fight for the fundamental right to have consensual sex with another person of the same-sex without being legally persecuted for it, and frankly, how ridiculous this queerphobic vestige of the white Christian colonists were, that stigmatized/s and entire community and takes away our fundamental liberties while they go back to their own country and decriminalized gay sex in 1967.

The film shows the different elements that had to come together to convince the judiciary to grant this right - arguments of the pink economy, the class and wealth of some of the petitioners, and so on, and the innumerable obstacles they had to face.

The film's premise is expected, and we know the judgement that will be passed by the end of the film, and yet it is enthralling to watch, to recount our resilience as a community on screen, and say to ourselves "we did this" as the day remains fresh in our minds from just five years ago. The film, being inspired by true events, has many references to the real people from our community that stood up for our rights in court, recounting the very recent and due queer Indian history that we all needed to educate ourselves on.

It follows NGOs like the Humsafar Trust and the Bharosa Trust, creating fictional characters based queer rights pioneers of India like Ashok Row Kavi, going back to the queer movements of HIV and AIDS prevention of the 1990s.

The film gives references to classic queer literature like Lihaaf or the Quilt by Ismat Chughtai, a short story narrating same-sex affections, written way back in 1942, British India.

The film makes great use of well-known Indian songs like A. R. Rahman's Urvasi and the Sufi Qawalli of Amir Khusrao Chaap Tilak to establish the universality of love that extends from the mainstream into the queer community. In fact, one of the first truly pure queer kissing scenes I had seen in Indian film was that of Maanvi Gagroo with Chaap Tilak playing in the back, etching the song to me as a song of queer, and true passion, notwithstanding its own queer history in sufism.

Section 377 AbNormal is an important film in terms on Queer representation in Indian Cinema. It is captures the scene of the queer community in India well, empathizes with the characters, and gives us, the queer audience a film of validation, a testament to our resilience, and shows the cis-het viewers a story that sensitizes them to the community as well. The film is pretty standard in its screenplay, cinematography, editing, style etc, with an OTT film feel, with no great aim for artistic achievement in the orginality of its form over themes, but with the right budget to get us into a courtroom drama with characters of Supreme Court judges, the queerphobic Indian police, and the posh drawing rooms and Paris bars. With some great actors like Tanvi Azmi, and younger actors like Maanvi Gagroo and Shashank Arora who went on to do great work, especially in Indian streamning, and a fictionalized documentary-like style that captures the gist of its subject matter, the film is a great watch for a queer audience who wants to delve into the recent history of the queer rights movement in India, and know more about the Section 377 decriminalization verdict.

The words of the 5-judge bench annoucning their verdict, in almost the same words as the actual judgement, is something that truly healed something in me and probably many of us. Really, an apology was due to our community. It is time to go onwards from this milestone delivered way too late, and to fight for all the other fundamental rights that we have yet to see the day of.

"Not for Nothing'.

A great German thinker, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, had said. "I am what I am. So, take me as I am."

Similarly, Schopenhauer once pronounced, 'No one can escape their individuality.'

What is the order of nature?

State cannot decide the boundaries between what is permissible or not

Section 377 is based on deep-rooted gender stereotypes. It persecutes people. It is a majoritarian impulse to subjugate a sexual minority to live in silence.

They need to come out in the open and breathe some fresh air.

Homosexuality is not a mental disorder which is recognized by the parliament as well.

The center must give wide periodic publicity to the SC judgement to eliminate the stigma attached to the LGBTQ community.

History owes an apology to the members of the LGBTQ community anf their families for the ostracization and persecution they faced because of society's ignorance that homosexuality is a natural trait. Its penal suppression infringes on a host of fundamental rights."