Trigger warning: homophobia
Some spoilers ahead!
It happened on the night of Friday, February 11, at V3S Mall in Delhi’s Nirman Vihar. Agni and I wrapped up our respective office work early, as we had booked tickets for a 7:30 p.m. show of “Badhaai Do”, and the mall was about 30 minutes away by walk.
We were ready by 6:30 p.m. and we left by 6:45 p.m. We reached the theatre (Cinepolis) before time and were kind of disappointed to see the underwhelming headcount inside… Not many folks had turned up to see the movie.
We ordered a large butter popcorn and two cokes and headed to the theatre as the gates to auditorium 2 opened. We were seated in the very center of the last row. My excitement was through the roof.
The movie started and our thrill kept increasing as we saw relatable things happening on screen: Bhumi Pednekar having a married ex, her being blackmailed and catfished through dating app, Rajkummar Rao being super terrified while talking about his sexuality, and Chum Darang, an out and proud lesbian from the north-east, being outcasted by her own family.
It was like we were watching our and our friends’ lives being played out on the silver screen. As the movie progressed, we get to see Bhumi and Chum engaging in flirty and romantic shenanigans.
“We Were Giggling, They Were Laughing At Us”
Agni and I were sitting there with our jaws dropped. We had placed our hands on our cheeks and we were giggling like little school boys. We had just witnessed the cutest lesbian romance ever and it all felt like a fairytale.
I, literally, had this crazy urge to call all my lesbian friends and force them to watch the movie with me that instant.
But, as the interval approached, something started bugging me. In the row ahead of us, there were a group of friends, out of which a few found the romantic scenes to be a tad absurd.
I vividly remember this girl saying things like:
“Aay haay… Kya dikhane le aye tum log (oh no, what the hell are you making me watch)!”
“Tujhe bade maze aa rahe hain Sakshi, kuch gadbad to nahi hai na (you seem to be having a lot of fun, Sakshi. What’s the matter with you)?”
A guy among them tried defending the film by saying, “Come on… these two [Bhumi and Rajkummar] are exceptional actors!”
Immediately, another ignorant homophobe from the group fell compelled to say: “Achche actor hain to kya ye sab karenge… Hahaha (are they going to get up to all this just because they are good actors… hahaha)?”
“I Was Losing My Cool”
Agni noticed that I was losing my patience. The movie was paused, lights went on and it was interval time. To distract me, he said, “Sun…. mere sath chal… Washroom chalte hai (listen to me, come let’s go to the washroom) and let’s click some selfies.”
Well, it actually worked. What can I say? I love bathroom selfies! The bathrooms in cinema halls are especially well-lit.
We were in the washroom and I said to him, “Agni, is that girl stupid? Bina trailer dekhe aa gayi thi kya movie dekhne (did she not watch the trailer before coming to the cinemas)? Did she really not know it’s was going to be a queer movie?”
Agni said, “Let her say what she wants to, she’s not important.” I noticed that the two guys standing behind us were eavesdropping. I instantly recognised them to be from the same group of friends.
So, I kept on blabbering about “those” homophobes loudly, just to make sure that their friends could hear me crystal clear.
“He Was Fetishising Lesbians”
We freshened up, clicked some good selfies and went back in. While were heading back to the auditorium, I noticed those two on the way. They were eyeballing Agni and I. I was ready for any sort of quarrel at this point.
Luckily, they didn’t even breathe in my direction. We went to our seats and the movie resumed. Maybe, those guys said something to the rest of them, but after interval, their homophobic nagging had reduced (mind my words, I said “reduced”, not “stopped”).
The other thing that was still bothering me was that there was a pervert in the very front row, who was making some very lewd comments whenever a romantic scene featuring Bhumi and Chum would play out. He made misogynist remarks like:
“Are yaar haath pakad liya, ab kiss bhi kar lo (if you have held each other’s hands, you can kiss too)!”
“Oye hoye… Batao, picture hall mein yeh sab dekhne ko mil raha hai (hear, hear… you can watch all sorts of things in the cinema hall nowadays)!”
“Arre! Bas, bas, bas (oh, enough, enough, enough)!”
I was trying my best not to focus on him.
“I Came Out To Everyone In The Hall”
And then came probably the most empoweringly queer, homophilic moment in the history of Bollywood so far—Rajkummar’s coming out monologue. Everyone was silent. Some were just watching silently and others were crying.
And then, there were Agni and me. We were doing both. The monologue ended and I started clapping. I also hooted to the top of my voice. All the attention was on me as there was pin-drop silence in the hall at that point.
I said to myself, “Okay Mr Extra, calm down!” The moment I stopped, that perv from the front seat commented: “Yeh pakka gay hoga (this guy is definitely gay)!” This was the last straw that broke the camel’s back that evening.
I stood up and yelled:
“Haan, bro! Gay hoon… Apne bande ke saath aaya hoon. Chaar saal se relationship mein hoon aur dono ke ghar pe bhi pata hai. Bol, koi dikkat? (yes, bro! I am gay… I am here with my boyfriend. We have been dating each other for four years now and our families know. Tell me, what’s your problem?”
“We Left The Theatre Feeling Like Winners”
I froze. The whole hall froze. And, it felt like time froze as well. I was so loud that my voice overcame whatever was happening on the screen in that moment. I sat down. I was shaking, my eyes were red. I was almost hyperventilating. A moment of silence followed.
And then, the whole theatre burst into applause! The most heartwarming part is that the applause started from the homophobes sitting head of us. Eventually, the whole theatre joined in.
For the rest of the movie, there was no more nastiness from that pervert or the group of homophobes in front of us. We left the theatre feeling like winners!
We left that place leaving a mark on all the homophobes there: they were are mistaken if they thought queer folks can be silenced.