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| “Reel” Life Meets “Real” Life in Waking up to AIDS |
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The path-breaking anthology of 4 short films commissioned by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation - Mira Nair’s Migration, Farhan Akhtar’s Positive, Santosh Sivan’s Prarambh and Vishal Bhardwaj’s Blood Brothers - comes back to captivate audiences but with a difference. At a unique screening held at Chennai, Santosh Sivan, Filmmaker, released the Tamil version of AIDS Jaago as communities of sex workers and transgender viewed them. They also shared and highlighted their concerns, dilemmas and search for alternatives beyond the films that show stigma and discrimination faced by middle class protagonists.
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Gunavathy and Sundari were among over fifty community members who were invited to the special screening of “Vazhkai Mukkiyam – Vizhitidu” as the AIDS Jaago Tamil version is known.
Gunavathy has been HIV positive for a few years now. From an earlier disturbed and worn down avatar, she comes across now as an articulate and healthy person. “It is difficult to imagine, when you look at my size,” she jokes “that I could be living with HIV. However, I have learnt to live, to move beyond the disease.”
Her journey is a reflection of one of the stories in the AIDS Jaago series – Blood Brothers, directed by Farhan Akhtar – where the reactions or the impact of diagnosis is shown in two entirely different ways.
Many such community members shared their stories and real life experiences as they watched the celebrated AIDS Jaago series of short films in Tamil. Filmmaker Santosh Sivan who has directed “Prarambha” (Aarambam) in the series, recalled that AIDS Jaago was the first time effort in using mainstream cinema and celebrated filmmakers to make short films on issues related to AIDS.
Santosh Sivan’s film traces the journey of a boy’s acceptance into his school and society, in the background of being infected by HIV. “All the four films in AIDS JAAGO are based on incidents that every common may or may already have faced in life. These films have been successful in spreading awareness and the numerous issues surrounding the aftermath of the disease. By dubbing the films into Tamil, we are reaching the films to a wider mass. It is another step forward in helping bring out issues related to the AIDS.”
Sundari, who broke down on seeing Sivan’s film, shared the stigma that her child was facing, just because she was in sex work. “Unlike the woman in the film, I have taken the decision to bringing up my child, no matter what. Though I do not have HIV, I am stigmatized by my work. My effort is to bring up my child without the shadow of my stigma.”
“There are over 2 million Indians living with HIV today. If we’re going to stop the spread of HIV and AIDS, we have to embrace every one of them – regardless of social class, line of work, or circumstance. The films are based on two strong themes – men’s unsafe sexual behaviour and the hopelessness and fear that the social stigma associated with HIV breeds. We are grateful to the distinguished directors who have contributed to AIDS JAAGO and are confident that with the release of the Tamil version we will be able to reach out to more number of people”, said Padma Chandrasekharan, Deputy Director, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Referring to Mira Nair’s Migration, Dr. R Lakshmibai, Project Director, TAI said that the effort now was to address the “vulnerable” group – in order to enable them to protect themselves from HIV and prevent its spread. “We have been speaking to women and marginal groups and while these films will help position the information properly for them, we are looking at exerting more impact on other groups also, so their behaviours could be changed on seeing the dramatic events in the films.”
Transgenders and Kothis / MSMs who were present at the screening were also able to relate to the trauma of a closeted gay who needs to maintain the façade of marriage to a woman. They felt that acceptance of their sexuality, could go a long way in preventing them from leading double lives and being at higher risk for receiving and transmitting the infection.
The films will be screened across drop-in centres, various institutions and film festivals across the state, while being made available to media houses as well.
“It is interesting to see the creativity of the filmmaker and the heart of the community being on display on the same platform,” said Dr E S Krishnamurthy, Secretary VHS. “Now it is time to generate a much larger debate and discussion around the issues related to HIV in the context of the progress we have made over the past two years.”
The tone for the debate had indeed been set in one small auditorium in the heart of Chennai.
Those interested in viewing / screening copies may get in touch with TAI-VHS @ (044) 22542355, taivhs@vsnl.net
Brief overview of the films:
Mira Nair’s film Migration shows how this sly virus moves unfettered across class lines, binding together a closeted husband, his frustrated wife, a migrant labourer, and his first-born child. While the reality of HIV infection is exactly this – random, unexpected, unprotected casual sex transmitting the virus – the key situation in which it actually migrates is somewhat unbelievable. The other three films deal with the rippling repercussions of HIV on the affected person and his or her family.
Vishal Bhardwaj’s surreal Blood Brothers tells a riveting story, almost thriller-like, doing away with all the sob stories about being HIV-positive as two different men live out the same diagnosis in entirely different ways.
Farhan Akhtar’s Positive is the touching story of a father-son relationship portraying the difficult journey of courage it takes to accept and care for someone who has hurt you deeply. However, the same journey that the wife/mother character also takes remains a quiet sub-text, deserving of a film of its own.
Santosh Sivan’s film, Prarambh (The Beginning), is a story of a little boy’s search for his mother aided by an (initially) unwilling truck driver, played by Prabhu Deva. What makes Prarambh -- the only film set in a southern state and not made in Hindi – interesting, is that it embodies all the elements of a standard Indian film in 12 minutes: villains, a lout who suddenly morphs into the Good Samaritan, the prostitute-with-a-heart-of gold, bumbling policemen, lively music, the dying mother, the adorable child, the angel at the end who makes everything all right.
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