Supreme Court Justice J. Chandrachud said in the landmark judgement that struck down Section 377 –  “What is the ‘order of nature’? State cannot decide the boundaries between what is permissible or not. Section 377 is based on deep-rooted gender stereotypes. It persecutes people. It is a majoritarian impulse to subjugate a sexual minority to live in silence, Decriminalization of homosexuality is only the first step.”

This verdict was delivered on 6^th September 2018 and it took nearly 2 more years for the Hindi Film Industry’s leading, successful and talented Hero to play a full blown Gay character devoid of any stereotypes (that is if you discount the unnecessary nose ring) and mannerisms!!

The movie is more about a dealing with homophobia than the actual act !! Uttar Pradesh is the new flavour of bollywood after Punjab. The plot is about 2 men in love and how the family of one gets around to eventually accept them. The parents of one played by the brilliant Gajaraj Rao and Neena Gupta- their confusion, denial and finally acceptance their son as he is.

It’s the Tripathi family with their family dynamic and crackling repartee that keeps one in splits during the entire 2 hours running time of the movie. Luckily beyond the two kisses between the lovers, there is no overt physical intimacy to make the audience uncomfortable. If I am allowed to say so this film is the Gay version of DDLJ and it also ends with the famous train scene between SRK and Kajol.

The movie belongs to Aayushman Khurana and the surprise is his partner the debutante Jitendra Kumar, they both makes us think without being preachy, technical and downplaying the victim card. After watching this movie I wonder can any mainstream hero match up to the body of work of Aayushman Khurana. Can he ever falter??? I hope the answer to that remains in the negative for times to come.

This movie isn’t for anyone who is homophobic or for someone with a narrow world view and who isn’t willing to accept a contrarian lifestyle. For the rest go enjoy this one !!

Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra in the verdict says,”The LGBTQ community needs the rainbow of hope for the sake of the humanity. They should be allowed to live with dignity and without pretense. This is their journey to dignity, equality and liberty.”