Pink Mirror
Director：Sridhar Rangayan
Screenwriter：
Cast：
Producer：Sridhar Rangayan
Cinematographer：
Running Time：40 mins
Region：India
Year：2003
Language：India
Production Company：
SYNOPSIS
A unique film coming from India where homosexuality is still taboo, The Pink Mirror (Gulabi Aaina), is a colorful funny look into the Indian homosexual closet.
It pits two Indian drag queens against a westernized gay teenager in a battle to woo a handsome hunk. It’s a clash of the east and west. Who will win? The drag queens who are expert in the art of seduction with their wit, innuendo and cunning or the young teenager who is saucy, slutty and sly?
The Pink Mirror (Gulabi Aaina) is a mute witness to their happiness, jealousies, passion and anguish.
Underneath the campy humorous exterior, the film is an exploration of the Indian gay landscape and understanding of the deep, humanly tender bondings that exist between drag queens in India who form unique, non-patriarchal families..
Using the Bollywood soap idiom of song, dance and drama and for the first time in the Indian drag queens’ very own language, Hindi, the film also explores other veiled issues related to the Indian gay community: the lurking threat of HIV/AIDS.
Director Biography
<p>Filmmaker, Gay activist</p><p>Sridhar Rangayan is an Indian filmmaker whose compelling films present hard-hitting social issues with warmth, compassion and humor. These award winning films have been at the forefront of India’s emergent queer cinema movement.</p><p>He has also been one of the ‘out’ gay men in India speaking openly about LGBT issues for the past decade.</p><p>He has served as a Jury member for prestigious film festivals such as Berlin International Film Festival in Germany; Movies That Matter in Netherlands and SATO in USA.</p><p>He is the Founder Festival Director of India’s biggest queer film festival KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival which created history by being the first queer film festival to be held at a mainstream theater in India.</p><p>He also founded and curated the FLASHPOINT Human Rights Film Festival that screened hard hitting documentaries on human rights issues in Mumbai and Delhi Dec2010-Jan2011. The films also screened as part of Kala Ghoda Arts Festival.</p><p>He is also the Founder Trustee and Board member of The Humsafar Trust, one of India’s oldest and largest community-based organizations working with rights and health of MSM and Transgender population.</p>
Director's Statement
<p>In India, the concept of men dressing up and performing as women has been prevalent from ancient times and these men were treated with dignity & respect. Earlier Indian films even had men performing as women because women were not allowed to act in films</p><p>That was more of a necessity</p><p>But later, it was more for fun – most of the top Bollywood stars have been in drag! …But in recent times, in Bollywood, the concept of drag has been reduced to a caricature – mainly for dramatic convenience or for crude comedy.</p><p>That apart, there has also been a few attempts at producing gay films (the short and sweet ‘BomGay’, the touching ‘Summer in My Veins’ and the yet to be released ‘Mango Souffle’), which are all in English. But there has not been a single film that spoke about the drag queens in their own language – Hindi</p>
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