#geeli pucchi

[pariaritzia]

Queerness in Indian Media

↳Film: GEELI PUCCHI from AJEEB DAASTAANS (2021, Hindi), dir. NEERAJ GHAYWAN

The short film Geeli Pucchi follows Bharti (Konkona Sen Sharma), a Dalit gender non-conforming lesbian who works in a factory and aspires to a desk job in the upstairs office. She befriends Priya (Aditi Rao Hydari), a Brahmin lesbian who is trapped in a heterosexual marriage and who gets the desk job that Bharti is denied because of her caste. The bond between the two women grows quickly, but everything takes a turn when Bharti confesses the truth of her caste to Priya.

Neeraj Ghaywan discusses caste, gender, sexuality, and his approach to making this short film here.

Konkona Sen Sharma's statement on having a "completely neutral" gender identity, not "woman or a man", here.

[threatlevelmidniight]

“What should I do? Is there a defect in me? Should I see a doctor? Am I crazy? It’s crazy that I can’t love such a nice man, right? Please. Please help me.”

“Look, if there is one thing you need to understand, it is that there’s no defect in us that needs to be fixed. You need to own your truth. That is the only way to be happy.”

- Geeli Pucchi, 2021 (dir. Neeraj Ghaywan)

[theburialofstrawberries]

Food in Every Frame

A review of Geeli Pucchi through food-tinted glasses, with Raghav Simha

My friend Raghav and I had a wide-ranging chat about food, politics, and Neeraj Ghaywan's DILF energies while reviewing Geeli Pucchi, a short film about a queer working-class Dalit woman who falls in love with The Enemy

[shuknopadma]

#they were gay.....but at what cost....

these were my literal words as the credits rolled but damn wow

Geeli Pucchi

Neeraj Ghaywan really said I will give you the beautiful nuanced inter-caste lesbian love story the people have been waiting for but you will SUFFER

[seavoice]

anyway! I quite liked the movie. It’s not a feel good lgbtq+ movie, sorry if I made it seem that way (although it didn’t need to be. There’s obviously a very important place for those movies, but this is something different) IMO, it is first and foremost a movie about the ways caste and gender interacts in India.

It’s called Geeli Pucchi, and it does quite a good job of exploring the intersection of caste, hetero-patriarchy and sexuality while not sermonising. It does a remarkable job especially when it comes to the messiness that comes with wanting both love and dignity, especially in a society that does a very good job of keeping you in its margins. I don’t why I’m gushing about it on here, but man. I really loved it, it’s worth a watch if you’re interested!

[foreverasuperhero]

Geeli pucchi was so interesting omg. It's kind of fucked up, but everything made sense? The intersections of class, homosexuality, and gender alongside their societal expectations. That shit was a whirlwind. I don't know what to think. It's crazy how they were both subjected to the laws of patriarchy and society.

err, imma just assume that Bharti and Sharma continued their affair or friendship because, they seem even now? Or maybe they have resentment? idk T.T

[seavoice]

hmm obviously i recognise how astronomically important these movies are in moving the dialogue about LGBTQ+ folks along here, and queer desi kids deserve to have hopeful, aspirational portrayals of themselves in media, BUT I do feel the space for LGBTQ youth in India—with access to safe, safe-ish resources—is incredibly, incredibly saturated with privileged, upper-caste kids and leaves extremely little space for kids who are marginalised in other ways. It is alienating to a point! And the recent “surge” (or slight increase lmao) in Indian films that are brave enough to tackle this already messy topic are so painfully indicative that they are portraying a very small, very privileged group.

There are many factors for it, of course, and I’m not getting into it in this post, but there was a scene in this movie where she kind of “comes out” as Dalit to the other girl, and it was such a punch in the gut. It felt very real, it wasn’t that it was a revelation that blew up the relationship or whatever. Nothing happened, but it didn’t matter because so many things were already happening and the other girl just. Didn’t. Notice. It really put in perspective that if you suffer one type of marginalisation, it doesn’t mean you are immediately empathetic to other types of marginalisation. It wasn’t a very “hopeful” movie, but it felt like a mirror, and I can genuinely say I’ve never related more to a portrayal of an LGBTQ+ person than I did in this movie.