June is celebrated as Pride Month. Each day is dedicated to a special identity that helps people understand, spread awareness and tell the world about them. India today has progressed a lot, but not enough to make everyone feel safe and loved just yet. People still need to learn and many are still learning and unlearning. The process can be slow, but it is never too late to start.
ZEE5 has an amazing bunch of movies and shows that will show you love, discovering oneself and accepting yourself and the ones near you, so that you too can grow up along with others.
Here’s a list of 6 such movies and series that you should definitely watch during this pride month.
A movie by Hansal Mehta, Aligarh stars Manoj Bajpayee and Rajkumarr Rao in the lead. The story is biographical and tells the life of a Aligarh Muslim University professor of Marathi and Head of Classical Modern Indian Languages faculty. Manoj stars as professor Ramchandra Siras, who was removed from his position and fired from his post on the grounds of “morality”. Siras was humiliated by the media, as they stormed into his room while he was making love with someone from the same gender. He finally found support in a journalist who helped him with the case, where the court ruled in his favour and was brought back to the university. Even with all this happiness, he couldn’t get through and things didn’t go like it was expected to.
The Married Woman is a series on ZEE5 that released earlier this year and created a sensation along with it. The series stars Ridhi Dogra as Aastha and Monica Dogra as Peeplika and is set in the backdrop of 90s Delhi. The story is inspired by Manju Kapoor’s book “A Married Woman” and beautifully describes the relationship of two women together who find themselves in each other. The story portrays Aastha as a dutiful wife and mother, who has devoted her life to the family and lives a very mundane life. She comes across Peeplika, who is artist and never abided by the rules society set. As Aastha starts to meet Peeplika more and more, she comes to find a connection, which up till, she never found anywhere.
An ALT Balaji and ZEE5 original, His Storyy stars Mrinal Dutt, Priyamani Raj and Satyadeep Mishra in the lead roles. The movie follows the journey of Sakshi and Kunal who are a power couple and owner of a restaurant with 20 years of marriage, they have a happy family with two sons. But, Sakshi’s world is torn apart when she comes to know that Kunal has an extra marital affair with a man named Preet and has been homosexual the entire marriage. She feels their marriage was built on lies and they finally separate with Kunal moving in with Preet. Things don’t go well with their son who cannot accept his father and abuses him for being gay. He does the same with his friend who is going through with finding his identity. Even after a lot of trials, the story could never end on a happy note.
377 AbNormal is a ZEE5 original film by Faruk Kabir that stars Sid Makkar, Maanvi Gagroo, Tanvi Azmi, Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub. Kumud Mishra and Shashank Arora. The movie is inspired by true events and tells the stories of five different people. A common thing between them? All five are actually petitioners who challenge the dreadful Section 377 that has broken hearts and taken lives of many as they couldn’t take the pressure of the society and the “shame” they brought to their families. The movie tells the emotional journey of their power, strong will and never back down spirit as the movie explores them creating the petition, observing the case and finally enjoying the freedom, when once and for all the Supreme Court abolished the Section 377, which led to the beginning of an era of equality.
This movie is not much about pride or same sex love, but it does tell a story about rejection and exception which resonates with every people of pride. The movie is directed by Onir and is apparently based on true events but at that just for the sake of getting approval, the movie was said to have used the banner of “fictitious story” movie. The movie stars Sanjay Suri, Juhi Chawla, Victor Banerjee and Purab Kohli in the lead. The story follows a bright young boy named Nikhil, who is from a loving family and has an elder sister, Anamika (Juhi Chawla). Set in late 80s and early 90s Goa, Nikhil who has a bright future ahead of him is diagnosed with HIV and hearing that he is immediately thrown out of his house. With nowhere to go, he was arrested by the Goan police at that time, a law allowed HIV positive patients to be kept in isolation. His sister, her boyfriend and a friend Nigel somehow bail him out and try to give him all the support they can. As he inches towards his last days, he finally reconciles with his parents and as he leaves them, they are left with nothing but hopes for HIV positive people out there.
The short film by Ram Kamal Mukerjee is an absolute ode to human relations, happiness and independence. The story stars Lillete Dubey, Celina Jaitley, Shree Ghatak and Azhar Khan in lead roles. the story set in Kolkata follows the life of Romita (Celina), a young, independent woman is finally ready to introduce her live-in partner to her mother and they go to meet their mother Suchitra, who lives in this big old house with her maid Chapala, who has had sex-change surgery. Despite her age and generation she comes from Suchitra is an open minded woman who has no issues with her daughter’s inter-religion relationship and is quite happy with it. She is a free spirited woman who doesn’t let the world bring her down, no matter what the situation is. While Romita still lives in the past, hoping for the return of her father and a reconciliation between her parents, she has no idea that her mother has found happiness in someone else and doesn’t need to go back to the toxic relationship with her father to bring happiness.
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