The fact that it is still illegal to be gay in India doesn’t in anyway diminish the presence of a significant LGBT population, it simply means that they must furtively live their lives in the shadows. Therefore creating any sort of art/culture for the community comes with great risks for all those concerned, but nevertheless that still doesn’t deter a few brave individuals from creating their art.
Making an LGBT movie in India is fraught with danger and is usually made on the down-low using guerilla tactics to avoid both being refused permissions to film, or physical and vocal opposition. Nevertheless some do get made like the excellent love story Loev in 2015 which went on to tour Film Festivals around the globe, even winning an award in Tel Aviv, before being played in the Mumbai Film Festival to very positive critical reviews.
Now there is a new rather wonderful short film called Sisak which claims to be the first silent queer Indian love story. Faraz Arif Ansari’s 20-minute short, drawn from inspiration from his own experiences, follows two young men (Jitin Gulati and Dhruv Singhal) who take the same local train home every day. As the film progresses, the shy and reticent men gravitate close enough to say something to each other, but they cannot muster the courage to open their mouths
Ansari used his savings to produce the short film, and the post-production expense was crowdsourced through the online platform Wishberry. He has high hopes of premiering the movie at the Cannes Film Festival before taking it on a global tour. Take a look at the trailer of this very touching wee movie below.
