Asian Window

It’s been a few days since I saw Dostana, Bollywood’s so-called gay coming out film. My first reaction was: Wow. Here’s a film that is made within the parameters and, therefore, limitations of mainstream cinema. The two lead actors aren’t gay; they only pretend to be gay. But despite these limitations, the film brings homosexuality out of the fringe and into the drawing room.

Look, director Tarun Mansukhani seems to be saying, hot-blooded guys can be gay; there’s nothing chee about the notion and, in a pivotal scene, the lead actress tells the “gay” guy’s resistant mother to accept her son as he is, so that he can live his life and be happy (and gay).