BISFF 2024- Night Queen (2024)

Coverage from my time at the Oscar-qualifying Bengaluru International Short Film Festival (BISFF)

Presented by acclaimed filmmaker Anurag Kashyap and directed by Noireeta Dasgupta, ‘Night Queen’ opens in on the protagonist Lakshmikant gazing at a woman’s physique from afar on the local metro while returning from work. This is not a lustful gaze but rather a wistful one, as Lakshmikant is lost in thought and more so draped in a haze of gender dysphoria that’s made it difficult for the gentle forty-something family man with a big heart to practice self-love. However, as day fades and a new night dawns and as the suppressed Lakshmi emerges from her cocoon, Lakshmikant can no longer keep up the pretense. But not everyone at home is eager or shows willingness to accept Lakshmi, especially not socially-conditioned wife Charu who has only idealized her husband in the image of a patriarchal figure thus far.

In this indie short, cross-dressing is neither played off as comical, nor a perversion or for shock value as it is in the mainstream. Even if Lakshmi adores dressing up especially in a red bra owned by Charu which is by far her favorite item of clothing, and even feels appreciated at the workplace by cis female co-workers for her knack in choosing the most cost-effective facials/parlor treatments (this particular topic is further explored on a date night with Charu at a unisex beaty salon), on the contrary she is also shunned by regressive minded relatives who view this desire to transition as shameful. By highlighting these differing public perceptions in the daily life of the protagonist, the short also pulls focus to ingrained gender constructs. Later on, Lakshmi progresses to a point of rejecting society’s gender constructs that she was forced to conform to in her youth and which boxed her in the first place, with the short also tying in the same to a scenario in the present day via a chapter in a school textbook that features an exercise in painting the diagram of a boy in blue and that of a girl in pink, thus exemplifying that heteronormativity and the archaic binary is yet to fade away.

It also places subtle emphasis on voice dysphoria, as Lakshmi also rejects the macho voice that she feels trapped by, later leaning into a daintier speaking voice that she prefers.

Coupled with some fine performances by renowned names such as Vipin Sharma and Sheeba Chaddha as Lakshmi and Charu respectively, as well as Preeti Panigrahi (in the role of their daughter), ‘Night Queen’ is a dainty and defiant short that ultimately reiterates the need for acceptance as well as affirmation, and not being confined by/limited/conditioned into either conservative values nor by regressive gender constructs that make one feel undervalued or unloved.