Karan Goel (27), who suffers from retinitis pigmentosa (90 per cent blindness), has made a film, The Other Side, on the gay community that urges society not to treat them as outcasts.
It’s his disability that helped him relate to homosexuals. “I have been visually impaired since childhood and though my family supported me, society did not accept me. Homosexuals face similar discrimination.”
After Goel returned to India in 2007, he decided to make a film that addresses this sensitive subject. Now that the film is ready, he has planned a special screening for the members of The Humsafar Trust, India’s first gay community organisation tomorrow in the city.
“The movie is based on the hardships faced by the homosexual communities. We need to have feedback from them, and hence have planned for the special screening,” said Goel, who is the writer, the producer and associate director of the film. [Link]
Frankly speaking, I believe a film like Dostana is a complete misfit in our current scenario. I mean those Kanta Bhen jokes and their extended versions were good during the late 1990s and early 2000, when saying “we exist” was a big enough deal. But it’s not that same anymore, now the main funda as I see it is about ‘informing & engaging’.
We need more films like My Brother Nikhil and The Other Side in order to spread the right word within the society and thereby expose real problems faced by real people. And not anymore use Homosexuality as a comic relief tactic or other commercial serving prospect.
KJo darling I hope you are listening!
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Ah, well, Dostana was never supposed to be a liberating queer movie…just a ‘pinkface’ minstrel show like Priscilla or The Bird Cage.
Still, I can’t NOT appreciate Jon Abraham looking so fine.
Kaviani – Oh come on, The Bird Cage & Priscilla dealt with homosexuality (& transgender) in much better fashion than our recently released desi films. Lets not even bring something like Dostana and that waste of an actor Johnny boy in the same league.