Pride Month: Hindi cinema, Homosexuality, and Humanity
Right from Kapoor & Sons to Fire, Hindi Cinema has sometimes shown both spine and sincerity in getting homosexuality rightIn Deepa Mehta’s film Fire, two women, strangled by loneliness, come closer and discover a bond that goes beyond physical intimacy. Their emotional depth may be gazed at with disdain, they continue to embrace their passion for one another. Like the moniker suggests, protests erupted across and the release was stalled. A PIL followed, followed by a much-delayed release, then followed by a dazzling response for audacity. This was the first step in humanising love that transcended genders Onir is one of the most sensitive filmmakers we have. His aching and alluring My Brother Nikhil is the story of a man who’s a swimming champ. His life comes crashing down when he’s diagnosed HIV positive. He’s in love with a man who stands by his sorrows. It’s fitting he’s one of the only people apart from his sister who understands the depth of his relationship and reality. After all, he’s a swimming champ.
Dharma Productions finally made what needed to be made. In Kapoor & Sons, Fawad Khan’s homosexuality is kept as a suspenseful cliffhanger in the drama about a dysfunctional family coming to terms with their reality. Expectedly, his mother was shocked who thought his son was perfect. It suggests homosexuality is still perceived as a flaw. Khan breaks down and tries to explain he’s tired of being the perfect son. His own brother is left speechless at Khan’s confession. It takes a while before acceptance kicks in, and section 377 is kicked out. All’s well that ends well.
‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2’ starring Kartik Aaryan, Tabu, Kiara Advani and Rajpal Yadav has emerged as a box office winner, raking in Rs 171.17 crore in India so far. The film, which released on May 20, collected Rs 3.45 crore on its 24th day bailing Bollywood out of troubled waters as very few Hindi films have managed to put up good numbers on the box office in recent times except for the runaway success of ‘The Kashmir Files’.
Senior film trade analyst Taran Adarsh on Monday shared the Kartik Aaryan-starrer film’s collection in his tweet, “#BhoolBhulaiyaa2 continues to surprise [the industry] and silence [the detractors] with its super run, week after week... The excellent trending in Weekend 4 says it all... [Week 4] Fri 1.56 cr, Sat 3.01 cr, Sun 3.45 cr. Total: 171.17 cr. #India biz.”
#BhoolBhulaiyaa2 continues to surprise [the industry] and silence [the detractors] with its super run, week after week... The excellent trending in Weekend 4 says it all... [Week 4] Fri 1.56 cr, Sat 3.01 cr, Sun 3.45 cr. Total: ₹ 171.17 cr. #India biz. pic.twitter.com/4JWX2fUeGC
— taran adarsh (@taran_ adarsh) June 13, 2022 But, calling the film’s success a surprise won’t be right as the independent trade analyst Sumit Kadel furnishes different reasons behind the film’s phenomenal success.
For starters as per Sumit, ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2’ “is a well made horror-comedy”. It belongs to the genre that has been gaining momentum and has amassed a considerable
fan following in India given the unprecedented success of films
like ‘Stree’ and ‘Go Goa Gone’.
Sumit further shares that the audience has been craving for big screen entertainers like ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2’ post the pandemic. Viewers are mostly interested in watching escapist cinema in theatres as “high on content films are getting bombed at the box office”, as per him.
Kartik Aaryan’s
‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2’ mints Rs. 171.17 crore at the box-office;
shows his growing might
as star
The legacy of its first part ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa’ which came out in 2007, gave ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2’ an early thrust akin to nitro boost on the box office race track.
And finally, Sumit credits Kartik’s growing fandom and stardom behind the impressive performance of the film as he says, “Kartik Aaryan’s stardom came into play. He is quite popular among youth and family audiences.”
Youth because of films like ‘Pyaar Ka Punchnama’ and ‘Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety’, and family audience because of films like ‘Luka Chuppi’ and ‘Pati Patni Aur Woh’ remake.
While ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2’ continues to grow, it has cut down the vital oxygen supply of the recent Akshay Kumarstarrer ‘Samrat Prithviraj’ as the latter has been washed off at the box office in front of ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2’, trilingual film ‘Major’ and the Kamal Haasanstarrer pan-India film ‘Vikram’