Third Gender in Tamil Cinema
By: Balaji Vellore Nandakumar
Tags: Movies, Transgender, Tamil Cinema, Third Gender, LGBT

I have wanted to pen this article for a long time but was not sure if I would be able to do justice to such a sensitive topic. But believing in my nature and previous articles, I decided to chug along. As with all topics portrayed in cinema and viewed in society, we have changed and modernized to good measure. The debate is if we have progressed enough, the answer shall always be negative, but nevertheless, it is always a work in progress. Having watched many English movies, I know for a fact, that there are many trans people working in Hollywood, but enough roles as trans characters on screen.

Zombies, Aliens, Superheroes, Shady villains, mutants, werewolves have all been cast in mainstream movies, but no single trans character has been done to date.

Tamil Cinema has been progressive from the start, from casting darker people as heroes, dusky complexioned women as heroines, when other movies were double thinking of doing such acts. Our portrayal of transgender people has been bad, but one good thing has been the screen presence and mention of them in movies. I still remember how a naive myself asked my friend, why is 9 such a funny number, and why are trans people called that way? He said 9 when reversed gives 6, I said 8 when reversed also gives 8, then he corrected me saying, 9 reversal gives two identities, hence the coinage. We have moved on a lot ever since, and I have matured well ever since.

Transgender people are people whose gender identity is different from the gender they were thought to be at birth. Medically speaking, there are people who are born male but identify themselves as the female sex later in life and vice versa. There are non-binary people who are neither male nor female, and there are various identities and terms accorded to them. Now, all these people have been clubbed under the acronym LGBT-which stands for Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender. All gender non-conforming type persons being given a common identity helps in rallying for their causes and societal acceptance.

Goundamani of his many comedies-Copyright-Pyramid

Tamil movies have always ridiculed them in movie scenes, they have never been given any serious characters. They have always been called doubles and various names and used up as props in comedy scenes, and we all have laughed along with it. Education grew, maturity slowly prevailed, and we have had good roles for them, and sensitive portrayal of such people in reel life. TK used Vijay Sethupathi as a transwoman in Super Deluxe, and what an audacious role it was, here was a person born as a male, married, had a kid but chose to become female. The confused kid of his would be unable to relate if he has to call his dad-dad or mom. Beautifully explained in one line was, God sometimes changes the right and left slippers, and such people are born. We had Prakash Raj essay the role, and Jayam Ravi act in Aadhi Bagavan.

Director Myskin made sure to cast them in crucial pilot roles in his movies like Nandalala, Onayum Aatukuttiyum. These characters chose to be themselves and were important in steering the movie forward. Aruvi was another such movie, where the lead female role had a transgender friend, which was lauded critically and commercially. The ghost franchisee Kanchana also had such character in Sarathkumar and now remade Laxmi Bomb with Akshay Kumar essaying this role. When you have mainstream actors doing such a role with sensitivity, common people, and more importantly young mind approach with care and compassion.

We have come a long way from non-portrayal to ridiculing them in movie scenes to the sensitive portrayal of such characters in movies. Movies are always a reflection of society, and often society reflects from movies as well. When we have decent characterization, such good habits tend to fall back into the minds of society as well. When the English language, chose to name it as trans sexual, meaning on or to the other side, giving more weightage to their confusion and trying to castigate them only as male or female.

The Tamil language chose to name them as the third gender, what a beautiful way to denote them as another gender. We have no right to try slotting them in male or female boxes, biologically or emotionally they are another type, and they have earned the right to be the third gender.