Best. Gay. Week. Ever. (October 10, 2008)

afhickman

"The mountain has wings."

If you look at Bollywood, it's usually useful to substract 10-15 years when you try to judge the Zeitgeist. After all this is the same industry where several top billing box office stars (Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Shah Rukh Khan) still refuse to kiss their female screen parterns on the lips (funnily there seems to be no rule against snorting their boobs). Where 10 years ago you had 30something actresses pretending to be virgins (because they weren't married) and it was generally assumed that an actress could not be married and still be a top billing actress (that audiences would find it improper if a married was pretending to be in love with her screen partners) and that having a baby would essentially end your career (because audiences would perceive her as a bad mother if she had small children and still worked).

Only recently (2003-now) actresses like Kajol and Aishwarya Rai have challenged the notion and begun to prove that you can be married (and even with kids) and still be a top billing actress. I still remember that a movie that came out in 2003 was advertised as a scandal movie because a straight couple was cohabiting before marriage (of course she gets pregnant and of course he marries her in the end), particularly because the movie was made by YashRaj which is sort of the Disney of BW. In short there are a lot of oddities to the Bollywood market that make it still quite different from Hollywood (though the difference seems to be shrinking).

That said, I'm very curious to see how Karan will be able to deliver on this promise of "dignity" (particularly since there are different reports now on what exactly the plot of the movie is; which isn't really unusual for BW, where people often aren't exactly sure till the opening day what exactly the movie is about). [Karan did say the movie was targeted more at the Indian communities in the US and UK rather than at rural India; And Karan most notably helped alternative gay/AIDs themed movie My Brother Nikhil find a distributor within India: [lead actor] Sanjay is a good friend of Karan Johar, an icon in mainstream commercial Indian cinema, who was one of the first people to have seen the rough edit of the film.

I remember waiting anxiously outside the edit room. I must have smoked at least 20 cigarettes, I was so nervous. But he came out and congratulated me and said that he was so moved during the last 20 minutes he cried.

He immediately called Adi ([major producer of YashRaj] Aditya Chopra) and recommended the film to him. Adi saw the film on VHS and the next day, he agreed to distribute the film nationally. In that sense, people have come forward to help the film and having a Yash Raj banner backing the film gives it reach and respectability no one else could offer us. http://www.rediff.com/movies/2005/mar/23onir.htm]

At the very least I'm up for seeing John Abraham in a cute sailor suit. And I'll definitely be watching to see how a movie like this does at the box office (regardless of how gay it ends up being, the gay angle was openly being played up by the promos from the start).

In addition re: Bollywood, I just have to say the understatement of the week award in the article was saying India is "still quite conservative".... in addition to the items listed above by LolaRuns which we would consider not quite conservative, but spectacularly conservative, is this wee fact:

BEING GAY IS ILLEGAL IN INDIA.

The government quashed an effort to decriminalize homosexuality just 2 weeks ago.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=&id=edfaa62f-698c-4cc5-b1b2-6bd0e0f26aa3&&Headline=Centre+against+legalising+homosexuality&strParent=strParentID

so ANY movie in Bollywood that is inclusive in any measure gets a big thumbs up!

Charm, huh? well, I guess that's better than Charcus or Marlie.

And can I just say for the record that Rob Lowe is looking mighty fine!

I've been won over by Skins, and I thought Anwar's father was awesome. His reaction to Maxxie aside, I was thrilled to see a Muslim man of deep faith shown as human, annoying his son and doting on his wife and sneering at his brother-in-law. There are webisodes available, called Unseen Skins episodes, which are worth watching. The first series doesn't have much Maxxie (although the Careers Advice ones are hilarious and worth watching regardless of being Maxxie-less), except for a cute moment in the 4th one. Series 2 has some really good Maxxie webisodes, but they also have spoilers for series 2 of the show.

Maxxie is in the Secret Party, and thanks to the equal opportunity approach to random drunken hooking up, he gets to make out at the party like everyone else. 

I agree with Michael wholeheartedly that there needs to be way more ordinary slice of life gay representation where gay couples are shown matter of factly just living life to the fullest, being romantic and all the other moments straight couples take for granted, like sitting in bath tubs watching the sunset in a Viagra commercial (okay, just kidding on that example, sort of. :P Yet those types of situations are routine for heteros in media but rare for gay couples). It's not surprising many str8 folks view "gay" as only meaning "sex" because that's what media too often reduces it to mean.

When was the last time you saw a gay couple sitting on a porch swing just holding hands and enjoying an afternoon with friends and relatives? I particularly enjoy movies that thoughtfully show slices of life, like when The Family Stone shows the gay son and his husband just walking hand-in-hand out in a winter wonderland at night.

"John Abraham looking much, much hotter than either Adam Sandler or Kevin James could ever hope!"

I strongly have to disagree. Abraham looks like one of the typical boring shower gel models who have never captured my interest while Kevin James is quite hot. Really bad choice of film projects and lame sitcom aside he is not bad to look at.

Hi,

I found these on YouTube, they are from the Irish TV show Raw that was mentioned, hopefully Geoff and Pavel's relationship will be interesting to follow, we will see:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BSrkG7evs4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL2GXWFOBgs&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSaFmQWYY5k&feature=related

Certainly a big change in TV cotent from when I lived at home (i.e. Ireland).

Niall.

There is quite a lot of content that has to be cut out of the YouTube clips so I'd say send a personal message to TubedOutNow2 to inquire about the "less" editted Pavel and Geoff related clips that she couldn't post on YT due to content restrictions.

I'm 5 episodes in and already hoping the come up with a second series.

I'm already mad for Geoff and Pavel.

Great acting all around. Wonderful multi-ethnic, international cast.

Completely compelling characters and fabulous yet complex burgeoning gay love story.

CHEERS!

The last episode is up. Parts 1-6 of the 6-part series are available at

http://www.youtube.com/user/TubedOutNow2

It's a fabulous little love story that gets a lot of bang out of so few episodes. I really hope they bring it back for a Series 2 Ooooh, ooooh, crazy love!