Border-slashing Funny Boy

Illustration/Uday Mohite

Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans rarely consciously see ourselves as South Asian. Geographically, theek hai. But in our souls, do we see ourselves as sharing a common South Asian identity and heritage? Forget it! Each to our own burrows. So, it is thrilling that Deepa Mehta's Funny Boy, one of the more high profile, recent films set in South Asia, is made by Mehta, an Indo-Canadian from Punjab, now based in Toronto; directing a film about Sri Lankans, set in Colombo; co-written by Shyam Selvadurai, Canadian author of Sri Lankan origin, along with Mehta; and produced by Canadian David Hamilton and Hussain Amarshi of Mongrel Media, an amazing, Pakistani-origin film distributor and producer, born in Congo, Africa, but long based in Canada. How's that for a remarkable marriage of South Asian and world cinema, and a sign of the future of cinema? Not only is Funny Boy Canada's entry for the Oscar for Best International Feature Film, but it is distributed by Array, led by the high profile Ava DuVernay, who was Oscar-nominated for Selma, and is a distribution collective for films by people of colour and women. The film dropped on Netflix in the US and UK on December 10, and was the opening film at the Engendered I-View World Film Festival in a New Delhi theatre the same day (its India distribution dates are yet to be finalised at the time of writing). What's more, it opens with the delightful old Tamil song Paatu Padava (Can I Sing a Song?) from the 1961, b/w Tamil film Then Nilavu (Honeymoon), starring Gemini Ganesan and Vyjayanthimala.

The film calls for an expansive literary, political, sexual and gender perspective, a border-slashing, South Asian engagement that no big local South Asian film industry, including Bollywood, is capable of, and in which it is least interested. So, a big salute to Mehta for daring to soar beyond the tagliatelle of boundaries of a 'desi film'-and soar she does.

Adapted from Selvadurai's partly-autobiographical 1994 best-selling novel, Funny Boy, the film is a coming-of-age story of a minority Tamil boy growing up in Sinhalese-majority Sri Lanka. It explores a Tamil-Sinhalese gay love story, set in the '70s and '80s, at the onset of the 26-year civil war in Sri Lanka, that left about one million Tamils as refugees. A lavish, period film that swiftly draws you in, it is both moving and funny, and, I'd wager, Mehta's finest film yet.

Chelvaratnam, an affluent Tamil who runs a resort in Colombo, is embarrassed by his "funny boy" son Arjie (Arjun), 8, who prefers playing "bride-bride" than cricket (he's played as a boy by Arush Nand, and as a teenager by Sri Lankan actor Brandon Ingram). Although Arjie's mother (Nimmi Harasgama) defends him, his strongest ally is his US-returned Aunty Radha, who encourages him to be true to himself. As a teenager, Arjie falls in love with his Sinhalese classmate Shehan Soyza (Rehan Mudannayake). But the Black July anti-Tamil pogrom of 1983 escalates into a civil war, with devastating consequences for Arjie's family.

Mehta's assured direction effortlessly holds together a love story underpinned by complex sexual, ethnic, class and gender issues. Ingram plays Arjie with boyish charm; superb British-Sri Lankan actress Nimmi Harasgama (August Sun; I Too Have a Name) plays the daring, married Nalini, who falls for their employee Jegan, a Tamil Tiger activist. Seema Biswas is delightful as the grandmother. The ensemble cast is good too, including Ali Kazmi, Agam Darshi, Rehan Mudannayake, Shivantha Wijesinha and Ruvin de Silva. The tech credits are very strong, including Douglas Koch's sumptuous cinematography, Teresa Font's editing and Howard Shore's (Lord of the Rings) music.

The appealing screenplay is at once personal and universal. In fact, this is Mehta's third feature shot in Sri Lanka, after Water and Midnight's Children were shot there, to bypass assorted fundamentalists. Funny Boy is a film for our times. Highly recommended.

Meenakshi Shedde is India and South Asia Delegate to the Berlin International Film Festival, National Award-winning critic, curator to festivals worldwide and journalist. Reach her at meenakshi.shedde@mid-day.com