''The Pink Mirror'', titled ''Gulabi Aaina'' in India, is an Indian film drama produced and directed by

Sridhar Rangayan Sridhar Rangayan (also spelt Sridhar Rangaihn or Sridhar Rangayyan; born 2 April 1962) is an Indian filmmaker who has made films with special focus on queer subjects. His queer films, '' The Pink Mirror'' and '' Yours Emotionally'', have been ...

. Said to be the first Indian film to comprehensively focus on Indian transsexuals with the entire story revolving around two transsexuals and a

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

teenager's attempts to seduce a man, Samir (Rufy Baqal). The film explores the

taboo A taboo or tabu is a social group's ban, prohibition, or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, sacred, or allowed only for certain persons.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...

subject of

transsexuals Transsexual people experience a gender identity that is inconsistent with their assigned sex, and desire to permanently transition to the sex or gender with which they identify, usually seeking medical assistance (including sex reassignm ...

in India which is still much misunderstood and ridiculed. In 2003, the

Central Board of Film Certification The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) is a statutory film-certification body in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of the Government of India. It is tasked with "regulating the public exhibition of films under the provision ...

, the Indian Censor Board, banned Rangayan's film on Indian

. The censor board cited that the film was 'vulgar and offensive'. The filmmaker appealed twice again unsuccessfully. The film still remains banned in India, but has screened at numerous festivals all over the world and won awards. The critics have applauded it for its 'sensitive and touching portrayal of marginalized community'. India's foremost gay activist Ashok Row Kavi says in his review, "The wonder is that it was not made before. The reality is that it is here now". India's leading newspaper, ''The Indian Express'', wrote, "This is more than just the 'peeping into the closet' that Rangayan intended. It's almost throwing the doors wide open for the world to look in!" The film has received tremendous support and critical acclaim from reviewers, festival directors and global audiences. It has screened at more than 70 international

film festivals A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upo ...

and won couple of awards. The film is also used as part of University archives and libraries as resource material in academic courses.

Plot

The film centers around two drag performers: Bibbo, a

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

fashion designer, and Shabbo, a dancer, who have a strenuous and often volatile relationship with each other. Though they are known to quarrel often, they are always able to reconcile soon after an argument and prove to the other that they care about them. They both have an attraction to Samir, an aspiring actor whom Bibbo claims is her driver, despite Bibbo not owning a car. The situation is further complicated by Mandy, Shabbo's young Western apprentice, who reveals he is

and admits to being attracted to Samir. Throughout the escapades and comedic antics that occur during the scuffle to win Samir's heart, Bibbo learns Shabbo's secret that he is

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...

-positive, and is not above revealing his secret to Samir or possibly even the entire city.

Cast

Festivals

The film has been shown in many festivals *Fire Island Film Festival *12th Le Festival Question de Genre– Gay Kitschcamp *Fire Island Film and Video Festival *18th Turin International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival *Digital Talkies Film Festival *6th Pink Apple Gay and Lesbian Film Festival *San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival *Queer Filmstan *Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival *Indianapolis LGBT Film Festival *Barcelona International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival *Hamburg International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival *Cork Film Festival *Lehigh Valley Queer Film Festival *Chicago Lesbian & Gay International Film Festival *Out Takes Dallas Lesbian & Gay Film Festival *Rhode Island International Film Festival *Translations – Seattle Transgender Film Festival, USA (May 2009)

Awards

* Jury Award for Best Feature,

Fire Island, New York Fire Island is the large center island of the outer barrier islands parallel to the South Shore of Long Island, in the U.S. state of New York. Occasionally, the name is used to refer collectively to not only the central island, but also Long ...

, USA *Best Film of the Festival, Question de Genre

Lille, France Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the Nord ...

Other related films

Since ''The Pink Mirror'', its director, Sridhar Rangayan, has made 5 more films dealing with

and

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through ...

people: '' Yours Emotionally'' (2006) is a film about a passionate love story between a British Asian from UK and a small town Indian youth. The film received good reviews for its bold and groundbreaking narrative. It has been released on DVD by Waterbearer Films. ''

68 Pages ''68 Pages'' is a 2007 Indian film about an HIV/ AIDS counselor and five of her clients who are from marginalized communities. The film is directed by Sridhar Rangayan and produced by Humsafar Trust in association with Solaris Pictures. It had i ...

'' (2007) is a film about the lives of five people who fight all odds to survive. It is about stigma and discrimination faced by HIV+ people – a transsexual bar dancer, a commercial sex worker, a gay couple, a heterosexual ID user and a municipality sweeper. The film derives its name from 68 pages of a counselors diary. This film had its world premiere at the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK 2007) in December 2007. ''

Purple Skies ''Purple Skies'' is a 2014 movie directed by Sridhar Rangayan and produced by Public Service Broadcasting Trust and Solaris Pictures. It documents the opinions of lesbians, bisexuals and trans men in India. It was broadcast on Doordarshan in 20 ...

'' (2014) is a 2014 movie directed by Sridhar Rangayan and produced by Public Service Broadcasting Trust and Solaris Pictures. It documents the opinions of lesbians, bisexuals and trans men in India. It was broadcast on Doordarshan in 2015. ''

Breaking Free "Breaking Free" is a song from the Disney Channel Original Movie ''High School Musical''. It also appears on the soundtrack of the same name. It is sung by Drew Seeley, Zac Efron, and Vanessa Hudgens. It was also released as a single on June ...

'' is a 2015 film directed by Sridhar Rangayan and produced by Solaris Pictures. In this documentary, filmmaker and gay activist Sridhar Rangayan embarks on a personal journey to expose the human rights violations faced by the LGBTQ community in India due to a draconian law Section 377 and homophobic social mores of a patriarchal society. The film was selected to be part of the Indian Panorama (non-Fiction) and screened at International Film Festival of India in 2015. It won the Rajat Kamal National Award for Best Editing (Non-Fiction) in 2016 for its editors Pravin Angre and Sridhar Rangayan. It also won the Barbara Gittings Human Rights Award at qFLIX Philadelphia in 2016. ''

Evening Shadows ''Evening Shadows'' is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language drama film directed by Sridhar Rangayan. The film stars Mona Ambegaonkar, Ananth Narayan Mahadevan, Devansh Doshi, Arpit Chaudhary, Yamini Singh, Abhay Kulkarni, Veena Nair, Kala Ramnathan, Di ...

'' (2018) is a movie set in South India and Mumbai, 'Evening Shadows' is a tender heartwarming story about a mother-son bond that has to withstand the ravages of time, distance and truths.

References

External links

''The Pink Mirror'' IMDb page''The Pink Mirror'' Blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pink Mirror, The HIV/AIDS in Indian films 2006 LGBT-related films 2006 films Indian LGBT-related films Transgender-related films