Arfi Lamba talks to Rashima Nagpal about his latest production Loev, a love story between three guys
Directed by Sudhanshu Saria, Loev is said to be ‘a simple love story of an unusual love’. Unusual probably because the love story in the story is shared by three men. And since homosexuality occupies little space in a world full of ‘girl-meets-boy’ stories, it makes it a rather unusual film. However, as it appears through the trailer of the film, everything else is as usual and complex as any other romance is, and heart-warming too.
Here’s the trailer:-
More often than not, definitions confine subjects and limit them from their possibilities. Actor Arfi Lamba, also the producer of the film, is of the same belief. He says, “Labels are given to anything that is not a majority. And instead of making things understandable, labels make them discriminatory.” This is precisely what the producer has ensured about LOEV. He adds that the story goes beyond cliches and that the only culprit in the film is ‘love’. “There are none of those extreme kind of scenes in the film; no shower scenes, no nude guys making out, no right-wing government is after their lives, no families disowning them,” reveals Lamba.
The film has received various responses after having screened in more than 35 countries by now. “I’ve seen people come out sobbing after watching it. Many of them were like- it’s anything but a ‘gay’ film,” says he. Lamba acknowledges the presence of homophobia, and believes that films like Aligarh and Kapoor and Sons have worked brilliantly in showing the struggle related to it. “These have formed the base for films like LOEV to come up. However, in LOEV we move away from all the struggles that are shown in gay cinema. We’re taking gay cinema to point zero. This film is all about love and how it takes a toll on the lives of the three men in the story.”
Telling about his experience travelling with the film worldwide, he expresses, “My complex that only we as Indians are homophobic has grown to realise that the entire world is homophobic.” Nevertheless, he firmly believes that there’s a change in the audience’s perspective. He thinks that the younger generations are a lot more receptive and is optimistic about how they’re going to receive Loev. “It’s a classic. It’ll go down in history,” believes he.
Commenting on the contemporary status of Indie cinema, he says, “We’re an escapist society. People watch films in order to get entertained. As much as entertainment needs to be a part of movies, you can’t ignore that cinema is art after-all. We’re past that stage when art-house cinema was flourishing and there was something known as ‘parallel cinema’. Now it has all come down to good stories and bad stories. The sooner we realise it, the better it is.”
Discussing about the political front of subjects like homosexuality the producer says, “We’ve ignored the Indian political scenario in the film completely; to a level that the film becomes political automatically.”
Starring Shiv Pandit, Dhruv Ganesh and Siddharth Menon, the film has been premiered at the MAMI Film Festival. “Finally, the film has come home,” said the producer.
On a personal note, I can’t wait to see it.
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