RIFLE RANGE BOY

Kathal: The Core (Malayalam; 2023) Director: Jeo Baby In 2001, the Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage. Four couples were chosen to have their wedding broadcast on TV. One of the couples was Hèléna Faasen and Anne-Marie Thus. Like a flock of seagulls to the shoreline in summer, journalists worldwide made a bee dive for it. One interesting point that a Chilean journalist was heard telling the world was that the lesbian couple was so ordinary. He had expected them to exhibit in full glory iconography of their sexuality, smut or menageries sexual of nature. Well, I think that is the problem. Hollywood and our society always stereotype members of the LGBTQI community as sex-crazed people engaged in sex orgies all around the clock. It is forgotten that they also yearn for the same things in life as others: peace of mind, security and knowing what tomorrow may bring. Being gay is more than about sex.  This Malayalam movie is one of the rare on...

Badhaai Do (Congratulations Due, Hindi; 2022) Netflix Learnt a new word today, a lavender marriage.  Sure, the law has accepted the third gender and various sexual orientations. But, mind you, it is not universal and definitely not freely tolerated by many conservative communities.  To conform to societal expectations and pressures, many members of the LGBTQIA+ community get themselves involved in 'sham marriages'. Couples undergo lavender marriages to appease the family and conceal their socially stigmatised sexual orientations. This is not something new. Rock Hudson, Barbara Stanwyck, Tyrone Power and many more in Hollywood had made arrangements to save their careers. Lately, in Communist China, it has been revealed that gay men hook up with lesbian women through social media to show their 'wife' during the new year visits to prevent nagging from the family members. Same-sex unions are illegal in China.  Slowly, we can see that OTT (Over-the-top) platforms are trying ...

Christiane Amanpour: Sex and Love Around the World (Netflix Documentary, Season 1; 2018) This provocative six-episodes presentation discusses matter considered taboo in many of the towns the episodes were centred - Tokyo, Delhi, Beirut, Berlin, Accra and Shanghai. If one were to look at olden civilisations, it seems evident that our ancestors used to quite accepting of sexual practices and its deviations. The Japanese, during the Edo period, boasts of Shunga erotic art. They were a liberal and stable society. All that came to zilch when Commodore Perry landed in Edo Bay and Emperor Meiji banned their erotic drawings.  The Indians had Kamasutra long before the Western world learned to count, but in the New World, it was viewed as yellow literature. The Victorian mindset even deemed donning of saree was obscene. In the 19th century and before, the blouse was not part of the female attire. The saree was used to drape the chest and bosom as well. Legends say that the Tagore la...

That is what the world has come to. There is sadly no 'one-answer-fit-all' response. The people who argue against the grain are smart people with intelligence quotients higher than the general public.  Everyone is concerned only of his own self. There is an inner desire to live life to the fullest; enough of living under the pretence that something sacrosanct needed to be protected. If all this while they had cowed to societal pressures and suppressed their inner needs, it was the time that they let their hair down. They do as they please. Over generations, through trials and error, regulations have been put in the system. Each sex had their gender roles. Each gender had their duties and expectations. It was not a perfect arrangement, but there was a semblance of order. The general public accepted it as necessary to continue our existence.  Nothing does not offend anyone any more. This signage in  an Italian B and B with an 'alien' in a coquettish p...

Karma Chameleon The song is about the terrible fear of  alienation  that people have, the fear  of standing  up for  one thing. It's  about trying  to suck up  to everybody. Rather than sneering at what they do, it would make sense for us to ask 'why' they do the things that they do. The point in question is the condemnation of many organised religions on demand of rights of those who deviate from the conventional sexual norms. As the world progresses, we find more and more people choose to display their sexual preferences, and it is clear. The LGBTQIA camp is definitely having a surge in recruitment. Its members are rational highly intellectual people who do their share of contributing to society. They are crystal clear and sound in their thinking. The detractors may say that they are a confused lot who need to be guided back to 'normality'. Clearly, they had misinterpreted the cues that were put to their bodies an...