Neon Lights and a Revolution of Joy: On the documentary Why So Straight?

Somewhere in an Art Residency at Mumbai. A golden lit room. Four walls. In the closed yet dreamy space, two bodies embrace each other and break free in dance to Boyce Avenue’s melancholic cover of Somebody That I used to Know. The poignant performance evokes the rush and angst of love. One of the dancers is dressed in red and the other is shirtless. The dancer, bare bodied and giftedly evocative is Ameya Hemmadi, a queer artist whose life is chronicled in Malini Jeevarathnam’s sophomore documentary, Why so Straight? The filmmaker’s debut documentary, Ladies and Gentlewomen was released to promising critical acclaim in 2017. It was screened across 11 International film festivals, winning the best Documentary award in three. Malini Jeevarathnam’s second venture is a beloved striving to create a positive and wholesome account around queerness, challenging the prevalent narratives. The film is as much about love, celebration and acceptance as it is about pain, rage, and estrangement. It premiered at Media Stage in Chennai earlier this year in a private event helmed by filmmaker and producer Pa Ranjith.

The film takes us to the streets of Pune and to an Open Mic at a café introducing us to Ameya in a feat of flamboyance, mirroring his very essence. He is seen at his truest and freest, bathed in neon lights. The brief visceral performances of Ameya in the film is the filmmaker’s glimpse into their artistic life, which translates indeed into a rich inner life. Why so Straight is primarily Ameya’s journey and a refreshingly intimate one at that, an account which places multiple moments scattered across their life in equal, shared glory. Be it the first romantic encounter leaving Ameya profusely blushing through an entire auto ride or their bridal makeover for the Pride parade, a moment gloriously revolutionary and personal, deeply tying into Ameya’s yearning. The narrative thus inherently bears an insider’s gaze, telling a story from within. Pratheep Kaliraja’s camera is not an object of scrutiny here, instead it assumes a brimming curiosity, keen to listen and capture. It places Ameya in the centre, forging a natural intimacy with the viewer as it presents Ameya’s personal recounting and the excited accounts of those who hold him dear. 

Why so Straight is a brief film, and it unravels only a few glimpses of the life of a queer artist. Several aspects of Ameya’s life as an artist are not delved into provided the film’s brevity but what Why So Straight manages to do brilliantly lies in its spirited ability to make us hope, by shaping a wholesome narrative and in its sensitivity to uniqueness and gender fluidity. The portrayal rises beyond a mere narrative of vulnerability and turns poetic in its chiding of the prevalent notions of normalcy and the rigidity of culture which is almost always at odds with the enabling Nature, something teased at by the very title. As the documentary soars to an end, it culminates in verse, similar in its spirit to one of Ameya’s contemporary dances where graceful movements and verse are combined in a performance of both the body and soul. In a crucial moment of the film as writer Dhamayanthi’s words are spoken aloud, the camera longingly lingers behind Ameya while he touches his shoulder blades, his arms, his fingers slowly slide down his chest and move to touch the bed. It is a moment of thrilling intimacy, a liberated exploration of the self, baring open the soul. The verses continue, the rains grow louder, we hope to question, to explore, revolt and to believe. The neon lights are back on. 

Talking about the film, Malini recounts their first encounter with Ameya which later went on to inform the central sequence of the film where Ameya dances in a club, dressed gorgeously in gothic black. That was the first impression Malini had of Ameya as they walked into the club, took out the heels from their bag and placed it on the table before setting the dance floor on fire. Malini remarks that the grandeur of the moment, the grandeur of Ameya was unbelievably electric and that she wanted to capture the intense excitement and awe.

She alludes the moment of the conception of this documentary in a dance club to the Stonewall uprising where a police raid in a gay club in America during the late 1960’s sparked a rebellion which emerged as a pivotal event in the gay liberation movement. The documentary is produced by Veytikari films, the first openly queer-friendly independent production house in Tamil cinema which has garnered support from both the artists and members of the LGBTQ+ community. 

Why so Straight will be screened by the end of this month in the upcoming edition of the Pune International Queer Film Festival.