While I can appreciate how daring it is to address homosexuality at all in Hindi cinema, this particular film addresses it in a way that is not helpful to the LGBT+ community at all. It's actually damaging.
'Girlfriend' doesn't treat the topic (what it's like to be homosexual in India) anywhere near seriously enough, and it portrays homosexuals in a terrible light. Tanya is obsessive, and she promotes the toxic ideas that (a) lesbians are simply 'man haters', (b) that you have to have experienced some kind of 'trauma' to 'become' a lesbian, and (c) that homosexuality is some sort of evil that must be purged.
In addition to that - though the latter is definitely my main criticism of the film - Rahul and Sapna's relationship makes absolutely no sense. Tanya may be a terrible person, but he is too. He pretends to be gay to 'get closer' to Sapna, whose initial reaction is appropriate, but somehow comes to find this ploy of his charming... which is absolutely ludicrous.
The political controversy caused by this film is ridiculous enough because homophobes are just that: ridiculous. The LGBT+ community, however, has every reason to be outraged by 'Girlfriend'. This film is an insult.
'Girlfriend' doesn't treat the topic (what it's like to be homosexual in India) anywhere near seriously enough, and it portrays homosexuals in a terrible light. Tanya is obsessive, and she promotes the toxic ideas that (a) lesbians are simply 'man haters', (b) that you have to have experienced some kind of 'trauma' to 'become' a lesbian, and (c) that homosexuality is some sort of evil that must be purged.
In addition to that - though the latter is definitely my main criticism of the film - Rahul and Sapna's relationship makes absolutely no sense. Tanya may be a terrible person, but he is too. He pretends to be gay to 'get closer' to Sapna, whose initial reaction is appropriate, but somehow comes to find this ploy of his charming... which is absolutely ludicrous.
The political controversy caused by this film is ridiculous enough because homophobes are just that: ridiculous. The LGBT+ community, however, has every reason to be outraged by 'Girlfriend'. This film is an insult.
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