Every human being lives with some dream or other. For some, the dreams vanish even before a hint of their being realized happens. But life goes on for them as human levels of tolerance, acceptance and internalization are infinite. Kuch Sapne Apne jointly directed by Sridhar Rangayan and Saagar Gupta is in itself, a telling comment on how dreams can differ within members of the same family and how one member’s dream not only impacts on the other members in different ways but also sometimes, unwittingly bring out the strengths and weaknesses of these other members. That is why this film is named Kuch Sapne Apne.

National Award-winning filmmaker Sridhar Rangayan and his co-director Saagar Gupta’s latest film Kuch Sapne Apne released in February this year, has been invested with several awards and recognitions, including the "Best Indian Feature Film" award at the Mysuru International Film Festival. It also won the "Best Screenwriting (Feature Film)" award at the New Bedford Film Festival in the USA. The film has been recognized for its exploration of LGBTQ themes and its celebration of diversity and inclusivity in cinema.

He goes on to add, “It is a ‘normal’ love story, just like any other love story, the only difference being - it is love between two men. Love and heartbreaks are part of every relationship, and what finally matters is what they truly feel for each other. In the film, the gay characters are treated like every other character – they are just human, and go through every emotion that every human being goes through.”

The film revolves around Kartik a young man desperately wanting to admit to his mother Vasudha (Mona Ambegaonkar) that he is gay and is living with his partner Aman in Mumbai. The family backdrop is comprised of Damodar (Shishir Sharma), a very conservative, dictatorial and patriarchal Tamil Brahmin based in the South and his wife.

It is a tremendous struggle to make a film on alternate sexual identities. Specially in the Indian cultural ambience where heterogeneous relationships across communities, regions, languages, faith and education have been the rule for thousands of years. None of our epics, have hinted at same-sex relationships ever.

While the Ramayana and Mahabharata never explicitly mention homosexuality or alternative sexual preferences using modern terms, they do feature characters and narratives that can be interpreted as having LGBTQIA themes. Examples include transgender characters like Shikhandi and third-gender figures like........

© Mathrubhumi English