Aligarh: Wilde in India
There is a dialogue in the movie that I remember particularly well. Deb, a handsome journalist, naively asked Professor Silas: Are you gay? The professor pondered for a moment: I... don't understand the word. After a pause, he said, how can these three words be enough to express my feelings? ... It was like a poem, buried deep in my heart, an uncontrollable fiery desire, an uncontrollable impulse. ...do you read poetry?
Poetry? ... Dib was a little puzzled, "I have read some famous poet, but I can't understand those words." He smiled a little embarrassedly.
According to you, poetry is produced in words? No, poetry is actually beyond the lines, in those pauses and utterances. ——Professor Silas seemed to be wandering, and seemed to regard the big boy sitting opposite him as his student.
This passage of Professor Heilas can be seen as the hidden theme of the whole film. ——On the surface, it is a so-called Indian version of "Philadelphia Story", which seems to be about how a gay professor defends his inalienable rights and dignity as an Indian citizen. In fact, beneath this bright line lurks another dark line of the film's narrative: in the last years of his life, a professor wrote a long love poem for an intern male reporter he had never met before. This poem never makes it clear who the object of love is taught. However, as Professor Silas said, all its passions are lurking between the lines, only to be quietly recalled and savored by those who are interested in the future.
In my opinion, the relationship between Professor Silas and the young journalist Dib is somewhat similar to Wilde's The Happy Prince and the Little Swallow. The prince shed tears for the suffering of the world he witnessed. A little swallow came to him because of curiosity. During the days of worrying about the prince, the little swallow brought warmth to the prince who was deeply vulnerable and helpless. The consolation made the prince realize the value and meaning of life. Later, Xiao Yanzi didn't want to leave the prince anymore, he gave up flying to the warm south and died at the prince's feet.
More than 100 years ago, Wilde, the author of "The Happy Prince", violated the British criminal law for homosexuality. He defended his behavior in court: There is an unspeakable love in this world, and men love men. For me, it is the most beautiful thing in this world.
The British film "Wilde" depicts the disgusting love that shocked the world more than a hundred years ago with delicate shots. In the epilogue, Douglas, played by Jude Law, still walked towards Wilde with a bright smile, and was still a handsome young man in his prime. The two still seem to be bathed in the grace of love. Wilde, who was betrayed by the family and was tortured to death by reality, was deliberately hidden by the director.
Like Wilde, our protagonist suffers from the most embarrassing tortures in the world. He was suspended by the school authorities, the power was cut off, and he was ordered to move out of the school dormitory; the landlord of the new home refused to rent a house to a single unmarried person, and asked his friends for help, but the friends said disdainfully, such a shameful thing, who made you file a lawsuit already?
In court, the female lawyer sarcastically questioned him about his role in bed, and confidently pointed out, "This is a violation of morality. Would you allow your children to study in a place with such a teacher?"
Beauvoir has a thought-provoking discussion of "morality" in "Vague Morality", Beauvoir believed that morality, like any existence, is shaped by social circumstances. Don't expect an absolute morality that will solve our moral dilemmas once and for all. Everyone at different stages of life, or who grew up in different environments, and who are influenced by different ideas in the same environment, can hold different moral values. The law is actually a morality that has been completed, such as murder and arson and other acts of harming others, it is generally undisputed that it should be prohibited. And some moral problems, such as human sexuality, may never be completed, and can only become eternal moral dilemmas. At this time, we can only rely on deep empathy and understanding to understand the feelings of others. In the case of Professor Silas, perhaps what we should ask is, did Professor Silas' private sexual behavior affect the public? Why are people accusing not the candid cameraman who violated the privacy of others, but the victim Silas who was violated and trampled.
Not only did Silas never hurt others, but he also had an ideal vision of love and beauty for human nature like Wilde. During the trial, he sat behind the lawyer and still couldn't stop writing just because of Deb's words; he couldn't either. Understanding the social stigma of "(same) sex" and "love", he lamented to Dib, why do people use such filthy words to describe our love.
He also seemed as naive as Wilde at times, and when Silas was worried about the whereabouts of his lover's coachman, Deb kindly reminded him that since the reporter who was filming was not breaking in, it was clear that someone (referring to the professor's lover's coachman) might be there. There was a door for the other party inside. The professor looked blank, maybe I forgot the lock myself.
However, your door has three latches and you forget to lock them all? Deb stared at the old man in disbelief, the professor looking like a little boy in need of protection.
Like Wilde, our protagonist is an artist, a poet who has a deep understanding and compassion for human nature, a poet who dares to break free from the shackles of morality and loves the same sex from the perspective of the highest beauty, but he is not a fighter who can mediate with animal nature. The film depicts the inevitable collisions and setbacks in Indian society for a non-traditional lifestyle person (besides traditional marriage or heterosexuality) with various metaphorical details.
Dibo, who is full of vigor and heroism, is no exception. Facing the courtship of the female boss, he was obviously a little surprised and contradictory; however, the female boss joked: Have you never had a relationship with a woman... The implication of this sentence was immediately understood by Dib, and he no longer Hesitantly, he embraced the female boss into a passionate kiss. What follows is a parallel clip of the professor's cherished kiss to his lover, a water-like caress, in stark contrast to the previous one. In addition to contradicting Professor Silas's tenderness for lovers, does it also mean the complexity of human "sex"?
Unlike other animals, human sexuality is not only an expression of love, but also has animal possessiveness and may be mixed with complex power relations. Power may be visible top-down power, or it may be invisible power that is "invisible"—for example, some kind of cue that a man acquires through a heterosexual environment he hears and sees.
The ending of the "Happy Prince" fairy tale also returns to reality. People tore down the happy prince standing in the square and removed the little swallow that accompanied him. The mayor meets to discuss the re-sculpture. For whom the statue was made, people quarreled, and no one was willing to let anyone.
Similar to the fate of the Happy Prince, the beauty that our protagonist insists on, finally fails in the face of the world.
As he parted in the middle of the night, Dib gave the professor a deep hug. At that moment, the professor paused for a few seconds, and his body seemed to tremble slightly. When he got home, he had a dialogue like a stage style. The lights turned on and off. We knew that this was the last poem written by the protagonist. We also heard the professor's uncontrollable heart because of this hug:
Turn off the lights, I'm feeling hot.
At the moment when this poem comes out, it doesn't matter whether Dib's true sexual orientation is heterosexual or homosexual, whether he is a latent bisexual, etc. Humans always like to label everything, but some people have things that can never be defined.
Dib's hug was also the only attachment left to the world in the professor's last life. In a collection of poems dedicated to Deb, the poet writes:
Dear Moon, don't be afraid of the dawn that will tear us apart.
While the world is sleeping, we will meet again.
In the light of day, I disappear.
Under your light, my soul is revived.
We dance like shadows.
with the song of the nightingale.
We touch like shadows.
merged into the midnight sun.
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