Nothing queer about it
June 3, 2012
By Anisha Rudrani
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/tabloid/glam-sham/nothing-queer-about-it-959Chandrashekhar was all of 18 when he desired to become Shilpa, of his own volition, or rather his genes demanded it. But the transition from a man to woman became fiercely controversial after the infamous Banashankari incident when Hijras (eunuchs) were tortured at the police station.
Ace director Gopal Menon's Let the Butterflies Fly is a peek into the Hijra community through the eyes of Shilpa. It talks about the abominable discrimination the society meted out to them for no fault of theirs.
The 74-minute story traverses through their trauma, the denial by society, their relationships and their joys. The film won the Best Film Award at the Mumbai International Queer Film Festival which concluded this week. "It seeks to convert one's premeditated notion about the third gender into a feeling of empathy and sympathy," Menon says, adding, "And, at the end, it throws up a friendly challenge to the society — who are we to judge what nature created?"
