Night of magic and moving moments opens Kashish 2017, South Asia’s biggest LGBTQ film festival
Some of the performers from the opening night
Kashish 2017, Mumbai's Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer (LGBTQ) film festival, has started rolling in the city, unspooling 147 films to be shown at Liberty Theatre and Alliance Française in South Mumbai over five days.
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Arjun Kapoor opens Kashish 2017 at Liberty Cinema on Wednesday
On the opening night on Wednesday, attendees filed into Liberty, a couple of men in kanjeevarams, and a couple of women in suits, straddling that grey area of gender fluid apparel with élan.
The anchor for the evening, RJ Malishka, set the tone by saying, "I will be singing, instead of lip-syncing, and you won't have to pay Rs 75,000 for it," she laughed, referring, of course, to the Justin Bieber concert.
Also read - Mumbai: LGBTQ film festival hopes to 'rock the city'
A big roar went up when well-known LGBTQ performer Sushant Divgikar sashayed in, adorned in a glitzy dress and playing "bitchy rival" to Malishka for chief guest Bollywood star Arjun Kapoor's attention. "I am the full girlfriend of Arjun Kapoor, while Malishka here is merely the half girlfriend," simpered Divgikar.
Kapoor struck the right note saying, "The time has come to not give a damn. My mother taught me that we needed to understand that people need to live and let live."
Corporates for queer
The corporate lobby was in the queer corner - strong allies Godrej were well represented with Nisaba first joking with the anchors about why she was not welcomed on stage, "with Hindi music", and then telling the audience that if they worked in non-inclusive spaces, "then they should send their CVs to us!" she laughed.
Also read: Shabana Azmi-starrer film is curtain raiser for Mumbai's LGBT festival, Kashish 2017
IBM, also a partner for the Kashish fest, had an LGBTQ employee, Ritesh Rajani, speaking: "IBM has always been a workplace and workspace where you can be yourself."
Culture mixed with inclusive corporate credo, as a hearing-impaired group performed an Odissi dance on a Marathi song. Diversity in dance came when three men in tight black leather corsets and fuchsia heels set the audience applauding wildly. 'The hotties on heels' brought a zany touch to the opening.
Fun was offset by serious notes. Roy Wadia of Wadia Movietone, one of the jury members for Kashish, said, "I have been married to my partner Alan since 2008. We have been together for 28 years" to a collective sigh.
United colours
Then, there was a woman, Mona Belleau, an Inuk from Iqaluit, Nunavut (Canada), who became emotional onstage. "I am missing my wife and two children," she said, adding, "There are many challenges for indigenous people in Canada from the LGBTQ perspective. I think Liberty is such an apt venue for such an event. I wish all of you can fulfil your dreams (of marriage) one day."
Also read: When Kashish Film Festival celebrated 'seven shades of love'
There was celebrity hairdresser Adhuna Bhabhani, who spoke about the "inclusivity of the hairstyling industry", and star of the opening movie of the night 'Signature Move' Fawzia Mirza, a Canadian actor from Chicago, who used her flair for comic timing to wondrous effect.
Then, it was time for Divgikar, 'queen' and consummate show person, to belt out a few numbers. "I get my energy from you all," he said, "I want everybody dancing," to round off the night with 'I will survive', and getting the front row, jury, sponsors, special guests and Bollywood dancing in the aisles.
For just a few hours that night, for the queer community, India became a place to be proud of, and if the stunning Liberty theatre's roof had opened up, there would have been a rainbow visible in the sky that night.
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