A feature film on masculinity and sexuality

The Riddle

A feature film by Amudhan R.P. 

The film is about 3 men and their anxieties about sexuality.

Short synopsis:

A is a government employee. He is 40 years old. He is not married yet. In fact he is still a virgin. He has been busy in earning wealth and in getting his 4 older sisters married off. He is frustrated. He wants to break the shackles. His sex life thrives on viewing pornography, ogling women at public places, flirting with his maid and masturbation. But his everlasting hope to lose his virginity becomes a reality one day in a more dramatic way.

B is a student doing his engineering degree. He is 20 years old. He is a child sex abuse survivor. He has been trying to manage his trauma, hallucination and guilt with the support of his mother. He is raped again by a man at a software company where he goes to do research. This time his newly found girlfriend comes to help him.

C works at his father’s garland shop. He is 30. He is a gay. He tries to live a quite as well as adventurous love life with the unknown partners he gets in the public places such as beach, toilets, cinema halls and his father’s garland shop. When his father forces him to get married to a girl, C does not know where to go but to the girl herself. But she offers a strange solution.

Detailed synopsis:

Monologue 1

Background: In a tradition Indian family girls are not expected to find their partners (as they might find someone from a different caste which is a shame for the family), they are not encouraged to get educated (as they might go out and meet strangers and might do bad things) and they are not expected to do a job (as they might become independent and might elope with someone) unless it is necessary. It is their father or brothers who will look after them till they get married. It is their father or brothers, who will find them a match. It is their father or brothers, who will plan and organize their weddings and so on.

In traditional Indian families boys are the real heirs. The boys are given more shares in the family property. Boys are expected to light the final pyre when the parents die. There is joy if a boy is born. There is sadness if a girl is born. Boy brings in dowry. Girls take away the dowry. Boy is a protector. Girls are unsafe. Boy is pride. Girl is shame.

The system not only curbs the women’s rights to get educated, to choose their partners and to work outside their families to earn and look after themselves; it also causes mayhem in the lives of men as fathers and brothers who will have to earn and earn and earn to protect the family pride. The sons should also pay back the debt created by their father. They should carry forward the legacy. They should be strong, clever and successful. But all men cannot do this. Many men suffer due to these expectations and responsibilities.

Our first protagonist A is 40 years old now. He is not yet married. He has not had sex so far. He has been busy in earning legally and illegally (he is a government employee) to earn and to support his 4 elder sisters as he is their only brother. His father passed away long time back leaving him to look after his sisters.

A got his 4 sisters married of. In fact one of his sisters had even tried to elope with a boy from a different caste. As a true brother he forced his sister to forget (!) that boy and got her married off to a man that he chose from his own caste. All the sisters got pregnant one after another, he looked after their expenses. Their husbands wanted dowry, he showered gold, cash and utensils. He kept on earning and kept on spending for his sisters.

He has so much debt. He is 40 years old. He has become half blind, bald, grey, old, round and tired. He snores, farts and burbs openly. People from his own caste do not look at him as a marriage material. Wedding brokers who found matches for his sisters refuse to take his calls. There is also a rumor among the family circle that he is sexually impotent although he himself has not attempted to have sex with anyone so far. No family is ready to “give” their girl to him to be his wife.

He is frustrated, angry and hopeless. His sex life revolves around ogling at women at public, pornography, flirting with domestic help and other poor women, and of course masturbation.

He wants to end this agony. He decides to do something that will make him famous instantaneously! 

Monologue 2

Background:

One in every 6 male children is sexually abused by someone mostly closer to him. The child sex abuse survivors struggle to cope up with guilt, shame and betrayal throughout their lives. Adult men who are not encouraged to share their pain and tears with anyone in our society struggle even more as men as a species are expected to be stronger and calmer.

Our second protagonist B is a child sex abuse survivor. He is 20 years old. He had been abused by this uncle when he was between 5-8 years old. By the time B’s mother found out, the damage had been already done. Although the uncle was arrested by the police, although his mother fought with his father (who supported his brother) and moved out, B is still unsure about so many things. He is guilty. He feels ashamed. He gets nervous to be among men. He thinks he was responsible for what happened. He is scared that it might happen anytime to him in near future. He suspects all the men who come across. He keeps a low profile always. He gets hallucinations regularly. He hears voices inside his head. He is under medication. He meets the psychiatrist regularly. He is surprisingly good in his studies.

He is a college student doing his graduate course in engineering. He has a girlfriend (from the same college) who gets disturbed by his hallucinations and abnormal behavior as she does not know his past. He is not sure whether to reveal his CSA. He is scared that she will leave him.

B goes to a software company to complete his research project as part of his graduation course. He is raped by the company CEO and he escapes from CEO’s house after being kept captive for a while.

B is admitted in a hospital where his girlfriend gets to know his history of CSA. To his surprise she decides to stay with him and support him.

Monologue 3

Background:

Gay men from economically poor background in India find it difficult to have their sex life without compromising on dignity and self-respect. They have no social support or protection or community which will enable them to meet their partners as compared with their fellow gay men from economically better background. They face violence, insult, humiliation and boycott from the families, neighborhoods, media and police. Gay men especially from poor background are also forced to get into hetro sexual marriages by their families and they end up living a secret gay life.

Our third protagonist C is a 30 years old man working at his father’s garland shop at a flower market. He is a good looking guy and has many female admirers especially the ones who come to buy garlands from his father’s shop. There are many rumors about him that he meets his female admirers secretly and having a great time with them. Many men at the flower market are jealous about him. But he is strictly a homosexual person and he sleeps only with men. He meets his partners at public toilets, beaches, cinema halls and at times at their houses. Sometimes his encounters have ended in severe violence which does not curb his search for partners and adventurous sex life.

He has met many interesting men – including a retired military officer who is a great lover -in his life; he has bond with a cinema hall where he usually meets his partners. One day that cinema hall is shut down permanently that hurt him so much. But he is happy with his life.

But his strict father one day decides to get C married off to a girl. C goes to that girl and meets her secretly and asks her to reject him. She agrees but she wants to know the reason. He says he is a gay. She offers a new solution which is mind blowing!

Amudhan R.P.