Woke appropriation of old films: Your opinion?

I was shocked when I read some blogs trying to hint there was a gay or queer angle to Jai and Veeru's relationship in Sholay.

Or a lesbian or queer angle to Chandramukhi and Paro's relation in Bhansali's Devdas.

Huh?

I know people analyse films on everything be it sexism or ageism or casteism etc but I do not agree with trend of hijacking films and putting narratives where none exist.

At no point of time did I ever feel that films with male bonding as shown in Sholay, DCH, AAA etc had a queer or gay subtext to it.

Friends can be close or affectionate without being sexually attracted to each other.

What is your take on appropriating old films and adding such narratives or hinting characters had those 'hints' but it was subtle as Indian society is homophobic?

Why can they not focus on actual LGBTQIA characters as shown in Badhai Do or Fire etc instead of appropriating old films like Anand or Sholay or AAA, DCH, KHNH?

I suppose that THAT is a more Western view than an Indian one...male bonding/friendship and female closeness is shown in different ways in different cultures and equally perceived.

Maybe, it's also only a mind game...in Pathaan, the (so-called) chemistry between Jim and Pathaan is remarkable (but that has nothing to do with queerness which, btw, is - in various forms - part of every human being).

I'll repeat what Clochette said. Westerners have different concept of personal boundaries and space. They don't get it that friends/cousins can hold hands together or share a bed in India without any inkling of sexual chemistry.Also privacy was a pretty unheard concept in India until recently when joint families were the norm and everyone was expected to adjust and compromise to the limited facilities. That included sharing spaces.

Dostana is also partly responsible for changing the perception in India. I've seen girls mocking boys who hold hands together as "Dostana" to their faces. Whereupon all parties become self-conscious and awkward.

Then there's this trend of writing fanfiction of popular shows/movies where straight characters are rewritten as gay as a form of self-fulfillment. Because there are very few mainstream content portraying gay couples.

I haven’t seen any of these movies in recent time and I’m trying to think, but I don’t remember anything that suggests a gay or queer angle. The only one I might go hmm about, and that too after reading your post and suggestions of this blog, would be Chandarmuki and Paro in Devdas, but that could be due to the over dramatic acting of these two characters/actresses.

Was the blog written by an American? More specifically a white Caucasian American? White Americans generally have a very narrow minded view of a lot of things in life and world. So while one might be extremely woke and consider themselves worldly by having watched some Hindi movies they might still be unaware of how cultural interactions between men and/or women vary in different parts of the world. Two men in the Middle East can walk down the street holding hands or kiss each other on the cheek without it meaning anything but friendship. In fact if they don’t greet each other with a few kisses on the cheeks it would be considered rude or two people who just aren’t very close friends. But there’s no way a man can hold another man’s hand or kiss him on the cheeks in America, even the most metropolitan of cities like NYC or Chicago, and not have everyone be convinced that they are a couple. All that being said, I still don’t remember anything in DCH to suggest a gay angle even to a narrow minded American. Sholay? Hmm there’s a whole song about how they’ll never “break up” their friendship so maybe that was taken in a different context by the blogger.

In Dostana (2008) Abhishek claimed Gabbar Singh could be gay 😆

Alok Nath was definitely gay in MPK.

https://youtu.be/X2fmR8dtLDo

I actually saw a video on an Indian site called The Swaddle where they cited Jai, Veeru from Sholay, Paro and Chandramukhi from Devdas and even Hrithik and Tiger from War as examples of queer subtext in Indian cinema.

It was not just western bloggers.

That site claimed Indian filmmakers shy away from showing LGBTQIA angle openly so rely on 'friendship' and also cited SRK kissing John at a Pathaan promotional event as example of queer self expression.

There’s a website queerjihad.com

Good post by you. Read my response to Clochette. It was an Indian site called The Swaddle. They built their hypothesis around SRK kissing John at a Pathaan success event, and showed characters like Jai-Veeru, Chandramukhi-Paro, Hrithik and Tiger in War as example of queer relationship hints in Indian cinema.

I think Ash and Madhuri hugging each other or holding hands together or crying and dancing together made people think it was queer relationship hint.

Though the first time I read about a gay angle to Jay and Veeru relation in Sholay was indeed a blog by a White American woman.

They do seem to view every form of touching or relation as sexual.

I agree with all the posts here

recently even RRR had this issue

It is western view but lot of I think Indian views on these topics mimic western takes, just like in politics where left and right have different meanings from what it means on the US.

It has been happening in literature too, I read that Roald Dahl’s books are going to rewritten with problematic parts edited out. I remember reading Enid blyton as a kid and then being told it has racism. I think in these cases one has to be made aware of the problem parts but one shouldn’t rewrite them.

Imo the creators take is what matters, and if they didnt mean it it shouldnt be interpreted so

but then I realized that ppl do this because they don’t feel represented so maybe I can’t judge what they feel

but then superimposing something which doesnt exist, will it really lead to anything, it will remain superficial at the most, it is kind of deceiving oneself

But I think at least local context and culture should be understood and everything should not be blindly adapted from west