Dir Sanjoy Nag, India, 2010
The London Indian Film Festival, now in its second year, is here
to show us that Bollywood is only one aspect of the cinematic
output of India. Out of the eleven feature films screening over the
festival, two have gay themes and both star Rituparno Ghosh. Better
known for his award-winning career as a director of primarily
Bengali feature films, Ghosh made his acting debut only two years
ago. His performance here is impressive, balancing raw emotion with
quiet sorrow and touches of humour. This would be achievement
enough for most; but Ghosh not only starred in this film but he
wrote the script, a few rather beautiful songs and even worked in
production. Extreme multi-tasking. Impressive.
Now, remember that bit in the original Queer as Folk when one of
the characters dies and his mates rush round to his place to remove
all his porn and dildos before his bereaved parents go to clear out
his stuff? Well, Memories in March is a tasteful version of what
happens when you unexpectedly die, no one clears up your flat, and
your mum has to come and find out you are gay through various clues
littered about your home like saucy prints in your bathroom.
This becomes particularly significant in Indian cinema because
the mother/son relationship is central to South Asian culture (as
classics like Mother India and even queer films A Touch of Pink and
Pictures of Zain illustrate). While Memories in March deals with a
gay relationship, we never actually see the relationship on screen
and instead the film centres on the character of Arati (Deepti
Naval), who arrives in Kolkata in the wake of her only son
Siddharta's death. There she meets Sahana (Raima Sen), her son's
co-worker who was clearly in love with Sid, and Ornub (Ghosh),
another colleague who is having unexplained difficulty coming to
terms with Sid's death.
Arati stays in her son's apartment and as she begins packing up
his life she begins to realise that she didn't know very much about
it at all. Revelations are followed by anger, confusion and
eventually friendship. The audience never see Sid, although his
character is created cleverly through the use of voice over, and
this makes the focus sit firmly on those he has left behind. While
Sahana and Arati bond quickly, it is only after several difficult
scenes that Ornub (revealed to be Sid's lover) and Arati are able
to come to an understanding and gain comfort from the part of their
beloved has left behind in each of them.
Memories in March is an elegantly paced, beautifully acted human
drama that has the potential to reach many people who consider same
sex relationships taboo. I would have liked to have known more
about how the film has been received in India - remember the riots
when Fire was released in 1996? Or much more recently the
homophobic comments made by India's health minister? Sadly my
Q&A technique (putting my hand up and politely waiting) was not
quite right and the more Desi approach of
shouting-out-random-thoughts-and-questions had more
success.
