Curated for Pride Library, University of Western Ontorio, Canada
Copyright Sridhar Rangayan, 2009
Please write to us for permission to use any text on this site
DISCLAIMER: All interpretations and readings is by the author. All the images and videos on this site have been used only for reference, collated from sources on the internet.
CREDITS
Title: Main Khiladi Tu Anari
English Title: I'm a player, You're an Innocent
Year: 1994
Language: Hindi
Subtitle: English
Genre: Feature / Popular Entertainer
Director: Sameer Malkan
SYNOPSIS
Bollywood actor, Deepak Kumar, is frustrated with the roles and his being type-caste as a romantic hero. He would like to do something different, and bring some change and excitement to his dull and boring existence. One day in order to overcome his tedious life, he gets drunk and drives around, and is arrested by the police, and held in a cell. This is where he meets with dashing Inspector Karan Joglekar, and is very impressed with his assertiveness, courage, and honesty, and would like to study his behavior so that he can use this as a background for his next movie. Karan reluctantly agrees to help Deepak, and permits him to accompany him while on duty. This is when Deepak will find out that perhaps he was better off being the reel-hero, rather than facing the harshness of a real hero.
QUEER NOTES
The two protagonists Deepak and Karan bond so strongly as to make the women in the film seem redundant. Apart from Deepak's blatant admiration for Karan, there is a heightened sense of homo-eroticism in every scene they come together - both in actions and their dialogue. The title song 'Main Khiladi, Tu Anari' shows the two men dancing together with such frenzy and intimacy, replete with suggestive poses and pelvic thrusts, it would be inconceivable to imagine that homoeroticism was not intended.
ACTOR/S IN QUEER ROLE
Akshay Kumar as Karan and Saif Ali Khan as Deepak (buddy bonding / homoeroticism)
LINKS
Imdb: www.imdb.com/title/tt0110438/
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Khiladi_Tu_Anari
queer portrayals in Indian films