Documentary filmmaker releases 1st lesbian anthem in Tamil

When we are children, we are taught that everybody is equal but as we grow up the world teaches us otherwise. The discrimination against the LGBT community that we come across regularly is a testimony to that. 

Unlike most of us, documentary filmmaker Malini Jeevarathnam didn’t want to be just another mute spectator. “I have seen my friends, women who love other women, take their own lives because they didn’t conform to the rules laid down by society. I had other gay friends who met with the same fate. They were good people who were punished for who they loved and the thought of their struggles was etched in my mind,” says Malini, who has worked as a freelancer with TV channels and even assisted director Pa Ranjith in the movie Marina.

When she had to make a documentary film, she thought of doing it on the LGBT community but the topic was too large and so she wanted to choose a niche one. “Though there is some talk about gay men, seldom do we talk about lesbians, who are rarely represented when talked about sexual minority,” she says, adding that she decided to make a documentary titled Ladies and Gentle Women. The documentary has won several awards at Chennai Rainbow Film Festival, Norway Tamil Film Festival and the Out & Loud — Pune International Queer Film Festival. 

Though the film is a serious one, she wanted to have a happy ending to it and came up with the idea of a song, which has been released on lyricist Madhan Karky’s music portal, Doo Paa Doo. The video received much appreciation on the internet. “Whenever you see a romantic song, you see a couple. This song is about what two women share. The first part is shown in an urban set-up and in the second, I approached Kutti Revathi to pen the lyrics and she was more than happy to come on board along with music director Justin Prabhakaran. Since I had worked with Pa Ranjith, when I approached him, he immediately accepted to produce the documentary.”