Those privileged to love freely often take it for granted while people there are fighting for the right to love those their hearts desire. Heterosexuality is widely considered to be “normal” while other sexualities and gender identities are neglected. Most countries have not given their citizens the right to marry beyond the heterosexual idea of relationships.
In the light of Pride Month 2024, let us revisit one of the most iconic movies in India’s history, probably the first LGBTQ+ movie made in the country, ‘Badnam Basti’.
Badnam Basti: India’s First LGBTQ+ Movie
After being adrift from the public eye for 49 years, ‘Badnam Basti’ resurfaced in 2020 when it was screened at the 11th Kashish Pride Film Festival. The movie’s copies were nowhere to be found when an American journalist connected the festival’s director to Arsenal Studio in Germany where it was discovered and restored digitally, as expressed by festival director Sridhar Rangayan. The movie’s print was sent there in the early 1970s to screen at a film festival.
The 1971 Prem Kapoor directorial Bollywood movie starred Nitin Sethi, Nandita Thakur, Nandlal Sharma, Amar Kakad, Ravi Kumar, and Amrit Patel. ‘Badnam Basti’ is based in a small town in Uttar Pradesh called Mainpuri. You will witness a pure shot of a homosexual relationship through its dialogues and performances and not intimate scenes.
Based on Hindi writer Kamleshwar Prasad Saxena’s novel ‘Ek Sadak Sattavan Galiyan’, the movie features a love triangle between Bansari (Nandita Thakur), Sarnam Singh (Nitin Sethi) and Shivraj (Amar Kakkad). The movie’s writers took the big step of publicising this story when homosexuality was still criminalised in India under Section 377 formulated by the British Government.
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New-Age Bollywood LGBTQ+ Movies
Despite the criminalising of queer relationships in India, storytellers have not refrained from narrating rainbow-coloured tales of love through movies. Bollywood has some of the most well-versed LGBTQ+ (Pride Month Quotes) movies that spread awareness and promote inclusivity. ‘Kapoor and Sons’, ‘Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga’, ‘Bombay Talkies’, ‘Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan’, ‘Aligarh’, ‘Margarita with a Straw’, and ‘My Brother Nikhil’ are a few such movies.
Image courtesy: IMDb
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While we have walked a great distance, a longer path is ahead. If you liked this story, stay tuned to HerZindagi for more!
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