Too Loud A Clap

Taali is too much exterior, very little inward looking, too much tell, very little show

- Satish Padmanabhan

CAN a male or a female actor portray a trans person on screen? Is it the same as playing a mafia don, a policeman, a sex-worker, a coolie, a gambler or any of the myriad masks an actor puts on while in front of the camera? A performer may be able to get into the soul of a character he or she plays on screen, but is it possible to get into another gender? By extension, how many men play women or vice-versa in cinema? Not like Padmini in Mera Naam Joker or Kamal Haasan in Chachi 420, where they only put on a disguise, but a proper gender-reversal role? So, should only a trans person portray such a character on screen?

These are some questions that pop up in your mind even before you start watching Taali. There are no clear answers. Filmmakers and actors would argue it is perfectly legitimate for a male or a female actor to play a transgender—it is creative freedom for an actor or a director, as also the saleability of a star to make the movie a hit. Many trans people will disagree—that a trans person is not just a character but a whole being. It’s a layered debate worth having with filmmakers, actors and trans people.

It is good that an OTT serial has provoked this debate and a hat tip to Jio Cinema for green-lighting a serial on the life and times of the transgender activist, Shreegauri Sawant, when the suits at most other OTT platforms are apparently only giving the nod to crime dramas set in the boondocks. Also, to the creators, Arjun Singgh Baran and Kartik Nishandar, and the director, Ravi Jadhav, to be inspired to make it happen, even with all its faults.