‘Dorothy’, a long-awaited embrace for the queer community

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An AI-generated image featuring queer activists and a poster of the Tamil movie ‘Dorothy’ created with a prompt on ChatGPT. | Photo Credit: Ramesh Rama Chandran

“This does not feel like a step up; it feels like having stepped on an escalator.” This is how Jaya, a trans activist and general manager of Sahodaran, an NGO working to uplift LGBTQIA+ people, describes how Tamil filmmaker Karthik Subbaraj’s latest sensation, Dorothy, feels to the queer community.

Dorothy, released in theatres on September 25, tells a sensitive story about a trans woman coming into her own and, as a bonus, finding love. The film has gotten rave reviews and, most importantly, appreciation from many in the community, who have yearned for decades for Tamil cinema to open its arms and embrace them.

Actor and author Negha Shahin is over the moon. “We finally got a film that takes a deep look into trans life. It surprised me to see how even cisgender heteronormative people connected to the film.” The emotion is apparent when Marakkah, teacher, poet, theatre artiste and founder of Chennai Queer Library, says she saw herself in Dorothy. “All my old memories came back to me. I couldn’t stop crying during the last 30 minutes,” she says.

Malini Jeevarathnam, actor-filmmaker and activist, found Dorothy to be a deep, well-crafted film. “It’s a raw, real story about what happens next door in our towns. What I liked was how they didn’t compromise on authenticity for aesthetic quality,” they say.

How Karthik’s story shed light on the prevalent social evil of honour killings targeting trans persons seems to have touched everyone. “We have seen honour killings due to caste and religion, and we are, in fact, a society that killed female infants. But Karthik has exposed something people don’t wish to speak about,” says Marakkah. Negha herself is a victim of family violence, “which is why I found that aspect of Dorothy to be very valid,” she says.

In the film, the titular Dorothy is also seen to be suffering from immense gender dysphoria before her gender transition — something mainstream Tamil cinema has hardly touched upon. “Most trans women, like myself, used to indulge in feminine activities secretly to feel euphoric. But some suppress those feelings due to fear and follow the stereotypes that their parents have taught them. Someday, it’ll burst out of them, which is what Dorothy shows,” says Jaya, who also rejoices in how “sensitively and tenderly Karthik showed the feeling of gender euphoria after gender transition”. Everyone we spoke to seems to believe that Karthik and his team have put in a lot of effort to research trans lives. “Only then can someone show such feelings with so much life to them,” says Jaya.

Maestro Ilaiyaraaja composing music for the film feels like a major win for the community. “Many songs have humiliated our lives, but there hadn’t been a song that expressed our feelings well until ‘Muthumani,’ which Raaja sir himself has written. Tamil cinema’s evolution from ‘Kokkarakozhi Koovura Velai’ to ‘Muthumani’ itself is something huge,” says Negha, while Marakkah remembers quite well the hatred she received due to ‘Kokkarakozhi Koovura Velai.’ “I gravitated away from Tamil cinema because of such representation. But I still cannot come out of Dorothy. So after more than 40 years, Tamil cinema has moved to the next phase, I believe,” she says.

That said, the community is also witnessing all the queerphobia that is being spewed at them these past few weeks. “There’s a common notion that Tamil people have accepted trans people and that they see trans people as gods. So if these people are reacting like this to a film like Dorothy, I wonder how they would react if they showed gay men, lesbian women, and so on,” wonders Negha.

The film’s final shot, featuring a kiss between a cis man and a trans woman, has particularly received vile, inhumane remarks online. “They are saying that it features two men kissing, which is very transphobic,” says Negha. Jaya finds it strange that people confuse the film’s queer identity with homosexuality. She wonders what’s so grotesque about the kiss when cis-men have always sexualised trans women. “There are many trans sex workers; now who indulges in sex with them? People should understand that trans people have their own romantic and sexual desires and dreams of a future with their loved one. And the way Dorothy speaks of that is beautiful.” Malini says accepting trans identity but refusing to accept trans romance comes from a faulty political lens. “It’s as if they are giving acceptance due to pity, but nobody needs that. If you accept me, accept who I am, who I love and how I live.”

Marakkah wonders why many believe Dorothy will “influence people the wrong way,” a queerphobic idea often used to target queerness. “It would make people see queer people from a different perspective. This film will not influence a cis woman or a cis man, but it will give confidence, courage, validation, and healing to those who carry that feeling within them.” She also wonders why some find it hard to empathise with gender dysphoria, when, in fact, dysphoria exists within all human beings to a certain degree. “Even men who cannot grow facial hair for many reasons, like their genes, have dysphoria.”

Now, even as we feel delighted seeing Dorothy, it may not be a smooth-sailing experience for trans women wishing to catch the film in a movie theatre. “Even today, there’s eve-teasing and a nasty gaze towards us,” says Negha, adding that she also doesn’t want the pity of cis people that “such a film has been released and so let the trans people see that film”. She says society needs to empathise that, like everyone, trans people too have emotions. Marakkah hopes the need to normalise trans lives changes. “I always believe that the day someone walking on the road sees and passes by us just like another human being on the street, we will know that society has changed,” she says. Jaya mentions that a lot has changed over the last 20 years, but there’s a long way to go. “Trans women are in a lot of fields, and there’s more awareness about trans men. So more advocacy and lobbying will bring about more change,” she believes.

Cinema, our sources agree, plays a huge part. “Art form is something that directly meets people, and so how you show us on screen matters because that’s how society will accept us,” says Marakkah. Dorothy, interestingly, featured trans woman actor Jeeva Subramanian in a pivotal role. Negha says this may not guarantee more opportunities for trans actors. “It’s been four years since I won the Kerala State Film Award. But I can’t say many doors have opened for me since.” But the fact that Karthik took Jeeva to the Toronto International Film Festival, where the film premiered, gives Negha some hope. “Because, usually, they would cast trans people for a miserable role, and they wouldn’t even invite us for audio launches or promotions.”

Of course, many community members are also mentioning a few flaws in Dorothy. Negha wishes the makers had muted some of the slurs or added a disclaimer in a corner of the frame urging people not to use those slurs in day-to-day life. “It’s very hurtful to hear those words. They put disclaimers for so many things; they can do it for this too, because even today, people continue to use those words to attack us,” she says.

But Negha too doesn’t wish to nitpick it as a major flaw. Malini says that while we can criticise any film however we want, when it comes to queer films in Tamil cinema, even the act of criticism is shaped by privilege. “In 100 years of cinema, how many films reflect the lives of people? So we don’t want to dissect frame by frame and nitpick. Because, at the end of the day, a parent or a young man watching the film should get this understanding.” These days, only the privileged seem comfortable in a theatre seat, they add. “The oppressed bend their heads in shame or think twice before clapping. That’s been the state of cinema, and so, to be able to sit in a theatre seat comfortably with a lot of pride and claim that this is our film is quite something.”

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