At an important juncture in Rainbow Rishta, Daniella Mendonca, an intersex person who identifies as a woman reveals what she went through before she was accepted by her family. She feels a lump in her throat as she narrates tales of being sold and growing up with the Hijra community while bringing to light some of the most harrowing experiences she has endured in her life. “When you sell your body so repeatedly, you eventually forget whether you truly have a right over your own body,” she notes. It is truly a moment to reflect upon how we, as a society have viewed and treated them. The series is full of such poignant and sharp moments that elicit multiple emotions – from warmth, and happiness to pain – and, silence which speak louder than any of the bustling metro cities these couples live in.
Cast: Trinetra Haldar Gummaraju, Ayushmaan Aishwarya, Aneez Saikia, Sanam Choudhary, Daniella Mendonca, Joel Mendonca, Sadam Hanjabam, Soham Sengupta and Suresh Ramdas.
Director: Jaydeep Sarkar, Hridaye A Nagpal, and Shubhra Chatterji
Directed by Jaydeep Sarkar, Hridaye A Nagpal, and Shubhra Chatterji, the six-episode documentary series attempts to showcase six stories of love from Mumbai, Bengaluru, Guwahati, and Manipur. There is a lot happening in the lives of the protagonists we see on screen. While Dr Trinetra is looking for a stable relationship as a trans person, Aneez Saikia and Sanam Choudhary are looking to move in as a couple. Ayushmaan is a human rights lawyer by day and moonlights as drag queen ‘Lush Monsoon’ by night. Joel and Daniella are gearing up for their dreamy wedding, Sadam is looking for a partner after years of struggling with himself while Soham Sengupta and Suresh Ramdas are living together, navigating the ups and downs of a relationship.
The series offers a glimpse into their everyday lives and their continuous journey towards accepting themselves and for people around them. Like Trinetra, whose stellar performance in her debut OTT venture Made in Heaven season 2 garnered tremendous praise. But for her parents, it has been a difficult, humbling and long journey to accept that she is trans. She is the star in her life and her dreams have taken shape better than she had imagined to be, but deep down, she wants to make a real connection with someone. Aneez and Sanam have been making multiple calls with house brokers to get a house as a couple. They fail again and again. For Lush, her drag identity is her superhero costume when she can unapologetically be herself. But her biggest concern is if her partner would accept her out of drag, just the way Ayushmaan is.
It is not in many documentaries or series you find the pronouns of people on screen mentioned next to their names and what profession they pursue. In fact, there are only a handful of stories chronicled for queer couples. Some of these stories are extremely heartwarming and have moments where you’ll have to grab your tissues. The camera lens also just doesn’t stop at showcasing the rishtas, but also takes a tour around their houses, glancing at the one rod that holds all clothes, broken chairs and empty photo frames.
In many ways, homecoming is what these people aspire for. For Sadam, a home is a partner where you know it is safe to come back to. While Ayushmaan and Trinetra see it as a place where there is acceptance, Aneez and Sanam see it as a place where they can start a new life together, not bound by any shackles that society has.
However, it was only Daniella’s arc that felt complete, coming to a full circle from where she envisioned herself. Sadam’s life story was barebones, and Aneez and Sanam’s story felt like it ended too soon after they moved into a house of their own. The series does a brilliant job of weaving together stories of queer couples from different parts of India, but it doesn’t feel enough, because I as a viewer, and they as a storyteller know that there are a lot more layers to unpack. For a story that is a celebration of queer love, Rainbow Rishta doesn’t show the historic decriminalisation of Section 377 or the recent marriage equality judgement where the Supreme Court refused to provide equal rights to queer couples, including insurance, medical, inheritance, surrogacy and adoption.
Apart from a few people noting that nobody from the LGBTQIA+ community has come to ask for marriage cards to be printed, opinions from the public including those from marginalised and oppressed backgrounds have been largely excluded — who are also a vital part of the community and have proven to SC judges that queerness is not just restricted to the privileged.
Rainbow Rishta is all heart but stays far from compelling and hard-to-swallow realities that deserve attention. It is a welcoming attempt at trying to normalise queerness just as much as heterosexuality while pointing to a world that is equally kind as much as there is stigma.
Towards the end, Daniella says, “Even after enduring all this, you can find someone who will love you and you can live a life you have dreamt of. You should just have a little hope and courage in your life.” It is this hope that ignites the fire to love and be loud about oneself and their sexuality. After all, it is only after a spell of rain, that the clouds move and reveal a rainbow…
