Perpetuating Harm: How Bollywood’s ‘Laxmii’ Fails Transgender Representation
Raghava Lawrence’s Laxmii is a remake of his 2011 Tamil film Kanchana, which was met with unfavourable reviews before it debuted on Hotstar. Like Kanchana, Laxmii has been dubbed a “horror comedy” by its creators. The bodily humour and the terrifying thought of a ghost taking revenge when one saw a cisgender male performer portraying a transwoman while wearing a saree. This idea is inherently transphobic, but to put it further, Kanchana and now Laxmii presented the audience with another problematic, stereotype-driven picture of transgender people in which the trans character is portrayed as an evil, unreal ghost rather than a real, living person. With rare exceptions, Bollywood has only ever acknowledged the presence of transgender people in the horror and comic genres. However, the industry relies on promoting harmful assumptions about transgender people and femininity in general while simultaneously strengthening hyper-masculinity. This is demonstrated in the Laxmii trailer itself.
One of Akshay Kumar’s lines from the teaser perpetuates the obsolete, patriarchal notion that a weak man should wear bangles. The decisions made in such representations are consistent with the transphobic perception of trans women as men dressed in “women’s clothes.” Together with this, there are other bad decisions made regarding how to depict the character transition from Asif to Laxmii using “creative” body language, such as excessive teeth chatter. The song “Bum bole” from the movie, which is meant to portray the trans community’s ritual dance on a whole moon night, further mixes transgender identity in Hindu mythology. Other characters in the movie bring up this subject on multiple occasions, such as Laxmii’s guardian comparing her to Ardhanareshwar or the villain stating, “Her curse could’ve turned our lives into hell.” Even when these portrayals are utilised to label the characters as “holy positively,” they merely serve to dehumanise further and alienate the already terrible portrayal of the movie’s only transgender character.
In the last few decades, Bollywood has demonstrated a tendency to avoid delving into delicate narratives of gender identity in favour of utilising trans characters as comedic relief. Major studios have occasionally found humour in cross-dressing or the transformation of well-known male actors. The debate around “Laxmii” occurs at a time when, despite legal initiatives to provide them with protection, transgender individuals in India are still subject to violence and discrimination. When Laxmii tells her own narrative toward the end of the movie, it becomes clear that the goal of the production is to present a transgender person as “respectable.” According to Laxmii, “We are hated by society because we commit wrongdoings such as begging.” I therefore choose not to go down that route. This exchange demonstrates the film’s writing style, which places the burden of making the “right” decision on trans people while ignoring the systemic obstacles put in place by the cis-tem that push trans women into jobs that may not be optimal for them.
The lens reinforces the notion that many workers’ consensually engaging in sexual activity is “morally wrong.” This is not to argue that realistic portrayals cannot be made in mainstream cinema. Movies such as “Tamanna,” which chronicles the tale of a poor transgender lady raising an orphaned child, have been praised for their realistic portrayal of the challenges faced by the transgender population in India during the 1990s. However, one must look beyond Bollywood blockbusters and towards the indie and regional film scenes for more complex portrayals. Specifically, several films from Tamil Nadu have received praise recently for their considerate treatment of transgender concerns.
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