An elderly professor at one of India’s once-of the most prestigious centres of higher learning is hounded out – of his job, and his humble abode — because of his sexual orientation. What happens to him makes up Hansal Mehta’s ‘Aligarh’. It is a film both timely and telling, because of what it is about, and how it is told.
Queer characters are not characters who just happen to be queer in most Bollywood movies. They are stereotypes sent up for sniggers( with the notable exception of a few of Onir’s films, ‘My Brother Nikhil’, and ‘I Am’; Karan Johar’s segment in ‘Bombay Talkies’) . They mince rather than walk. They dangle their wrists. They are there to be mocked at.
Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras( Manoj Bajpayee) is getting on in years. As befits a teacher and author, he is a man of letters. He likes poetry. He likes a glass or two of the good stuff when the day is ending. Above all he is alone, sharing his loneliness with Lata Mangeshkar’s soulful songs, and occasionally, a tryst with another human who just happens to be of the same sex.