No Country for…….Queens

“Films of the ’80s ridiculed the transgenders,” says Atkins,as his first film prepares for release on April 29. The two-hour-long film stars Seema Biswas (as Guru Amma),Raj Zutshi and South-Indian newcomer Vineeth Radhakrishna as well as 30 transgenders from across India.

But Atkins,37,is quick to shun the hype around possibly the first mainstream film set entirely in the hijra community. “I am not promoting or condoning the transgender community. Neither is this film a statement about them,” he says firmly. “The plot demanded that I set the film within the community.” “Transgenders face emotions such as insecurity everyday. I just wanted to show how they cope with it,” says Atkins,who wrote the screenplay in September 2008 and shot the film in 2009.

An assistant to Mansoor Khan in the Shah Rukh Khan starrer Josh in 2000,Atkins has been directing TV serials like Kahin Kisi Roz among other Balaji Telefilms projects. But he always meant television to be his “backdoor entry into filmmaking”.

“I hope a film on trangenders also enlightens our audience as well as sensitises them,” explains Atkins,who has avoided the caricatured approach of films like Namak Halal and Sadak,where transgenders were shown dancing with intimidatingly sexual gestures and mouthed slurs. Though films like Welcome to Sajjanpur and Gulaal show trangenders differently,Queens is perhaps the first film that will showcase the participation of transgenders in birthing rituals and naming ceremonies,among other conventions.

Transgender activist Laxmi Narayan Tripathi,who plays a chela in the film,says the film is a major step forward in Bollywood’s outlook towards hijras. “The film also shows how a young boy is subject to abuse by his parents and community when he announces that he is a transgender. We have been portrayed as human beings and not creatures from another galaxy,very rarely does that happen in films,” Tripathi says.

Atkins first approached Om Puri and Naseeruddin Shah for Guru Amma’s role,but “was eventually convinced that a woman can portray male mannerisms and emotions more effectively”.

There will be many expectations around this film as a cinematic exploration. Will it live upto the promise? Atkins remains non-committal.