September 25, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): The scandal-prone new film Dunno Y... Na Jaane Kyon has gotten itself into trouble with the censorboard. Blurbs boasting that it is Indian cinema's first gay love story have apparently not encouraged the censors to loosen up and act liberated.
The censorboard has clamped down heavily on the love-making sequences between the film's leading man Kapil Sharma and the Delhi-based model Yuvraaj Parasher who plays Sharma's lover. Apparently, the film which also features stalwarts Zeenat Aman and Helen, is carpeted with smooching and love-making sequences between the two guys. There is also a lingering gay love-making scene which goes all the way. It apparently had the ladies in the censorboard walking off in a moral huff and eventually asking the film's director Sanjay Sharma to delete the torried kissing sequence and the love-making sequence.
The film leading man who says he's straight in real life, is appalled by the hypocricy of the censorboard. "Why should the censors be scandalized if two men are kissing and making love? My sequences with my screen partner go as far as the scenes showing a guy and girl doing it in our films. And let me tell you, some of these heterosexual sequences are extremely vulgar. The ones in my film are very aesthetic. And so what if it's two men making love? Love is love regardless of gender."
The film's makers have now submitted their film to the revising committee where they hope the ostensibly objectionable sequences will be.
Says Kapil, "The censorboard objected to the kissing and love-making. They asked us to delete them. We refused. We aren't trying to create any kind of sleazy stuff here. Ours is the first ever serious gay love-story. The intimacy is essential. Our film is now with the revising committee."
This isn't the first mainstream film to show intimacy between two men. In Madhur Bhandarkar's Fashion there was masculine passion in the form of a kiss between Samir Soni and his screen partner. Bhandarkar voluntarily snipped it out. Sudipto Chattopadhyay's Pankh had a smooch between Maradona Rebello and his screen partner. In Onir's I Am Rahul Bose and Arjun Mathur play a gay couple and have a kissing sequence.
Dunno Y Na Jaane Kyon is the first film to show a gay love-making sequence. Defends Kapil Sharma, "It is sensual and bold, not at all vulgar. It's like any lovemaking between a guy and a girl. Why should we delete it?"
Yuvraaj Parasher who has gone nude for the camera plays Sharma's gay partner. He adds, "I feel cinema and the audience have changed. I never wanted to make my debut as a collegian wooing a chick from my mo'bike. When I was selected to play gay in the audition I was elated. I'd rather do something unconventional."
Speaking about making love to a guy on camera Yuvraaj says, "It was awkward. After doing it with Kapil we avoided each other. Finally we looked at one another and burst laughing."
Maybe Rituparno Ghosh who constantly has a problem casting his gay characters should meet these two guys.
-- Subhash K Jha / Sampurn Wire