This is a Bollywood musical
drama and faced protests from both Hindu fundamentalists in India and gay and
lesbian groups alike. Tanya (Isha Koppikar) and Sapna (Amrita Arora) are
best friends who live together. It's clear that Tanya is in love with her friend
and even surreptitiously watches her in the bath. She is marked as somewhat butch,
able to fix the plumbing, ride a motorcycle, and win kick boxing matches against
men. Enter Rahul (Aashish Chowdhry), the man Sapna falls in love with.
As Tanya repeatedly tries to break up the couple, we learn that the two women
slept together once in college when they were very drunk, but Sapna insisted that
they forget the incident. When Rahul and Sapna plan to marry and move to
London, Tanya goes as far as cutting off her hair to look like a man. She's portrayed
as a crazy person who was sexually abused as a child, feels like a man trapped
in the body of a woman, and identifies as a lesbian. Then it becomes the tired
lesbians hate men and are psycho killers story of the worst kind. It is
frankly a shock to see this kind of film made in 2004, no matter where its origins.
The message that a good lesbian is a dead lesbian is heard loud and clear - but
I guess they get originality points for making it a musical drama. |