The Core of the Matter

TWO NEW FILMS I saw in the last month raised the same issue in completely different contexts. One was Kaathal—The Core, and the other was Maestro. The differences in the depictions in Malayalam and Hollywood cinemas of gay/bisexual men who have straight marriages were striking. These two films otherwise have little in common, one being a drama and the other a biopic of a major cultural figure, but both feature top stars and both have been critically and popularly acclaimed. They were each, in their own ways, fascinating takes on a sensitive topic. Spoilers now follow.

Indian cinema has long engaged with gay issues in its own way. Here, I must mention the groundbreaking research of my former PhD student J Daniel Luther, as our discussions have informed my views (Queering Normativity and South Asian Public Culture: Wrong Readings Only by J Daniel Luther). Nonetheless, Kaathal surprised me. I watched it because I’d enjoyed the last film of the director Jeo Baby, The Great Indian Kitchen (2021), and also because I’m interested in the rising tide of quality, low-budget, middlebrow/middle-class films made in Malayalam, very different from the big-budget spectaculars, which have found wide audiences.

Kaathal is set in a very ordinary, realistic world. A retired clerk, Mathew Devassy (Mammootty) is running in the local elections when he finds out that his wife, Omana (Jyothika), had filed for a divorce earlier. She has always known he’s gay but she hasn’t told the rest of the family. Devassy Sr (RS Panickar) reveals that he has always known his son was gay but he wanted him to marry. The marriage looks successful as the couple love each other and have a college-going daughter but, when questioned by a lawyer, Omana reveals that they have had sexual relations only four times in their marriage. Mathew has a lover, Thakan (Sudhi Kozhikode), and she now wants to have a “real” marriage. After the divorce is hurried through court, Mathew and Thakan matchmake for her, Devassy and Mathew reconcile and Mathew wins the elections.

It was a great surprise to me that a film on this issue, of gay men getting married to women, should be made at all, more so that it should star the massively popular Mammootty (who also produced it), and that it avoids stereotypical images of gay men while focusing on love rather than sex. The divorce ends up bringing the family closer as lies and secrets are replaced by honesty and understanding, allowing friendship between the couple and emotional closeness between Mathew and his father.

There are few set-piece speeches, although an activist presents the statistics of the number of gay men in India who marry despite knowing they are not attracted to women. However, this situation is clearly visible although rarely discussed in real life, let alone in cinema (exceptions include Karan Johar’s Ajeeb Dastaan Hai Yeh in the anthology, Bombay Talkies, 2013) or in series (again, it is present in Made In Heaven, 2019, in Season 1, where Karan Mehra’s landlord as well as his schoolfriend, Nawab, are married to women, but are gay). In real life, some couples reach arrangements to live together while both have outside affairs, but more often this privilege is only for men. It’s also the case that a gay man and a woman have a marriage of convenience, though I know of fewer examples.

Maestro, the biopic of Leonard Bernstein, directed by and starring Bradley Cooper, is a very different kind of film from Kaathal. It is far more cinematic in its form and is based on a real figure where it is hard to overstate his fame and impact on American, and even global, culture as composer, conductor, pianist, educator, and activist. Bernstein is still remembered for his concert compositions, his musicals (Including West Side Story, 1957) as well as his film music (On the Waterfront, 1954). Although we see glimpses of these, including his famous performance of Mahler’s second symphony in Ely Cathedral, the focus is on Bernstein’s relationship with his wife, Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan).

Lenny (as he is called in the film) and Felicia fall in love almost instantly but he hesitates to get married. She says, “I know exactly who you are,” meaning she is aware of his sexuality but marries him anyway. Felicia gives up her career for him and their children. The film implies he has many affairs, so when Felicia sees him with his lover in a corridor at a party they host, she says to him later, “You’re getting sloppy.” At the premiere of his new work, Lenny and his lover hold hands in front of her. Yet, when rumours circulate, Felicia tells him not to let the children know, and Lenny tells their daughter that the rumours are because people are jealous of him. Although this part of his life is hidden, Lenny refuses to change his name and conceal his Jewish identity which is also seen as a potential threat when embarking on his career.

The couple separate but later reunite and their love is apparent when they move to their home in Connecticut where he cares for Felicia through her cancer and death. Again, the movie shows that love is the bond that keeps couples and families together, while sex plays a less important part. Felicia is no doormat though, and it is also clear that Lenny doesn’t think about the pain he causes her, even when he can be bothered to keep his affairs private.

These films both raise questions about what is a good marriage and what roles love and sex play. They also ask what families are and what is public and what is private. Do parents want their kids to be ‘normal’ or do they want them to be happy (whatever these terms mean)? Both films show that love and honesty are important things and that society is changing and can accept different kinds of families.

While many countries in the West allow for same-sex civil partnerships and marriage, this is not the case in India. There is still a culture of secrecy where several figures in the film industry, for example, are known to be gay but can’t speak about it directly. (And nor should they be ‘outed’ unless they want to do so themselves.) Yet, even in recent years, views are changing. I remember that after Brokeback Mountain (2005), many people said they had changed their views and felt that love was what mattered. Now that France has its first openly gay prime minister and diplomats have same-sex marriages or partnerships, tolerance, if not acceptance, has to be assumed.

India has its own history and culture of same-sex relationships, although these too are changing. The wonderful Made in Heaven series showed urban elite gay, transgender, and other lives but such possibilities are not open to all. One of the striking things about Kaathal was its setting in an ordinary village community whose prejudices are overcome. The film finds happiness in love and acceptance, as do the blockbuster melodramas, but in a very different and realistic style. Both films show, as the big melodramas do too, that happiness is found in families where loving relationships are based on respect and honest communication, whatever the genders.

Bradley CoopercinemaFeliciamaestroMatt Bomer