The rain-bow and Cupid’s arrow!

Besides the fact there is a French Beach in Karachi what I learnt from Saim Sadiqrsquos film Joyland 2022 is that an unborn childrsquos sex determination is legal in Pakistan Unlike in India As you can tell in the family drama where the grand old patriarch is craving a male grandchild from his two sonsThe ultrasound delivers a falsepositive report for a boy once The result could be correct the second time on Joyland is easily the most feted Pakistani film in the arthouse scenemdashthe first to win an award at Cannes It officially dropped online recently on MubiI watched it with immense interest finallymdashfor how it is aesthetically delightful checking all the boxes authentic performances gentle camerawork grey characters and a world so geographically close to Indians of course and yet so politically farJoylandAt its margins is the story of a fling between a gay man and a transgender dancer That the film was initially banned in Pakistan before a limited release tells me the homosexuality laws first put in place by the British continue to prevail It would be the same Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code since 1860A society that criminalises love of any kind actively legalises hate To be fair the Indian Supreme Court struck down 377 eventually only on September 6 2018One of Joylandrsquos lead actors is a transgender person Alina Khan playing the transgender role Biba Which canrsquot be said for transgender roles in Indian cinema over decadesA reason the transgender activist Gauri Sawant said she wished former Miss Universe Sushmita Sen to play her in the biopic Taali 2023 Jio Cinemamdashshe had already led such a dark life full of insurmountable challengesShe wanted someone beautiful to depict her on screen for starters Sen was Sawantrsquos personal choice Seeking beauty whether in art or otherwise is a birthrightmdashwellknown realities are secondaryDirector Jaydeep SarkarJoyland named after an amusement park in Lahore is altogether a joyless film As are most filmsseriesdocs with LGBTQ characters on occasion tending towards atrocity porn Consider the sheer ugliness in an equally recent film Haddi 2023 with Nawazuddin Siddiqui as a transgender donWhy is the recent sixpart LGBTQ documentary series Rainbow Rishta 2023 on Amazon Prime Video produced by Vice Studios following six stories across economic classes and geographiesmdashLajpat Nagar New Delhi Guwahati Assam Bhayander Thane Imphal Manipur Manipal Mumbai etcmdashso differentChiefly because it is joyousmdashfrom the zingy soundtrack to attractive visuals playful dating to the sevenyearitch in a relationship aspirations for stardom to rare intimacy even a marriage ceremonyAs for the latter since the Supreme Court had taken the lead with both Section 377 and officially recognising transgenders as the third gender in 2014mdashif only theyrsquod similarly gone ahead with legalising samesex marriages in 2023 They got close They didnrsquot Many would have gained What does anybody gotta lose anywayRainbow Rishta is a reality series where the principal cast has come together to open their lives up for cameramdashfinding keeping normalising love without veering towards cringe TV or an advocacyactivism docYou watch the Indian queer characters being celebrated for who they are Rather than their genders or sexual orientation Which isnrsquot all that anybody is 24x7 anywayWhy was I drawn to Rainbow Rishta Because of the series director filmmaker Jaydeep Sarkar better known to friends including me as Jhandu Jhandu and I were the first friends in Bombay We moved at the same time from DelhiWe were together at Jamia reading mass communications We met one evening over coffee at Max Mueller Bhavan concurrently suggesting to each other Letrsquos just drop out and go to Bombay toucheI left the next morning His kaalipeeli cab drove in to my home perhaps a week later Neither of us had a clue what we were gonna do professionally He probably had a better ideaThat he was simultaneously struggling with issues to do with love dating companionship being a closeted gay man is something I couldnrsquot have knownWe somewhat lost touch later Although when we met and still do we could start bitching about the world just from where wersquod last left off Which is mark of the healthiest friendship But for an elemental aspect of his life that hersquod kept from many like me still Jhandu lsquocame outrsquo to his parents a decade agoThis couldrsquove been even tougher in the preceding decademdashas captured grimly in Nishit Sharanrsquos shortdoc Summer in My Veins 1999 There are a couple of characters I noticed in Rainbow Rishta who still havenrsquot quite lsquocome outrsquoMaybe the camera is their catharsis This is 2023 samesex love is not even a legal taboo Most parents in the series have accepted their children for who they aremdashie their children what elseJhandu himself mustrsquove internalised a lot in his 20s He eventually found love which is what the series is about shorn of even an iota of bitternessIt felt so personal to me for a friend As it would for the community healing with time so comfortable in their skin before the cameraworld Thatrsquos instantly why Rainbow Rishta is such a joylandMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper