Sridhar Rangayan’s Gulabi Aaina and Evening Shadows to screen at Hyderabad Queer Film Festival

The Hyderabad Queer Film Festival which is being held in the city on Sunday December 12^th at Annapurna Studios, Banjara Hills, will be screening a bunch of Indian LGBTQ+ short films as well as Sridhar Rangayan’s multiple award winning feature film Evening Shadows, alongwith his first film Gulabi Aaina (The Pink Mirror).

Excited about this, writer, director & gay activist Sridhar Rangayan said, “I’m so excited to travel to Hyderabad to present my first and latest film together at the Hyderabad Queer Film Festival this weekend. I’m so glad that the organizers have recognized the need to present my earlier film made in 2002, to give the audience a sense of where we were and how far we have come.”

“In 2002, when we were shooting for our first film Gulabi Aaina (The Pink Mirror,) everything was so hush-hush and underground; and we were even scared to hold a preview screening of the film at a private studio. And now in 2021, we are screening it at one of Hyderabad’s largest studios! While the verdict on Sec 377 in 2018 has opened many doors, social acceptance is still a far cry. That’s why I believe films like Evening Shadows hold great value in transforming general audiences’ perceptions”, added Rangayan.

Sridhar Rangayan with the two drag queens in Gulabi Aaina

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“We at HQFF want to recognize one of the pioneers of India’s queer themed cinema, Sridhar Rangayan, by screening his earlier and his latest film. We want to start the trend of honouring LGBT classics to open the festival from this year. We are doing so with Gulabi Aaina made in 2003. We are also screening Evening Shadows that has won several awards internationally, is a long overdue tribute to the emotional journey of every queer individual’s rediscovery of parental love and acceptance. Its aesthetics are spellbinding and semantics leave a long lasting impression. Sridhar’s cinema has inspired several filmmakers from the community and continues to do so”, said Moses Tulasi, festival director of Hyderabad Queer Film Festival.

Devansh Doshi and Arpit Chaudhary in Evening Shadows

Gulabi Aaina (The Pink Mirror) is a Bollywood style comic drama about two drag queens, a gay teenager vying for the attention of a bisexual hunk. Evening Shadows is about a gay son coming out to his mother in a small town in Southern India, but more about the mother’s dilemma of accepting her son, and standing up as a woman against the patriarchal society.

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While Gulabi Aaina (The Pink Mirror) has screened at more than 80 film festivals across the world and won two awards, Evening Shadows has won 25 international awards and screened at 75 international film festivals.

Apart from the film festival screenings, the film Evening Shadows continues to engage audiences on the streaming platform Netflix where not just the LGBTQ community and their families, but also general audiences are giving it a warm reaction as is evident from the comments on Facebook:

“To call it a movie is cheapening this work of Art! The characters were soulful! The cinematography was just so real! I watched it 7 times, focusing on each character every time. Simply beautiful! This movie gnaws into the depths of your soul. The cast are nothing but sheer brilliance. Mona Ambegoankar is nothing short of class and she knows how to seep into your veins to touch the core of your soul through her performance”, posted Sathyavathy Rasanayagam.