#khejdi

November 20, 2019

by Inakshi Chandra-Mohanty

When the Indian television show, Shakti, was announced years ago, no one knew that a concept involving a transgender woman and her struggles in society could be the basis for commercial tv show, let alone a successful one. Now, three years later, the show is still running with high TRPs, even if the plot has completely derailed as is the tradition of Indian TV shows. But, despite its numerous flaws, the success of this show proves that there is an audience for taboo topics like these. Yet, mainstream Indian films are just beginning to show sensitivity for the LGBTQ community. Even in non-mainstream cinema, the films made on transgender people are at a minimum. Which is why Khejdi is such an important film. It takes a plot similar to that of Shakti, and places it in a disturbing and discomforting setting. Based off of a short story Sanjha by Kiran Singh, Khejdi tells the story of a transgender woman, Khejdi (Ashish Sharma) shielded from society by her father, fearing ostracism, and how she grapples with her identity, when she is finally old enough to face the outside world. 

What makes this film different from most films about the transgender community is that Khejdi is not presented as a transgender. For herself, and for the audience, she is a woman. Her father raises her as a woman, not giving her a reason to doubt that she is any different. Therefore, she picks up on the behavior of the women who frequent her father’s clinics. The stereotypical mannerisms of transgender people in Indian entertainment, are not present here as Khejdi’s mind is of a woman, even if her body is partially of a man. Ashish Sharma embodied this spirit. While it is questionable for a male actor to play a role of a transgender woman in a film, it is undeniable that he has done a tremendous job. He had to approach the character with the mindset that he was playing a woman, not a transgender woman, since Khejdi saw herself as a woman, not a transgender. For a man to play a woman, and a woman to play a man, without resulting in a caricature-ish appearance is one of the most difficult things to do. And he has done that job extremely well. 

Apart from its thematic value the film is visually captivating. Its strength is not the beauty of the visuals, but the nature in which they are used. Director Rohit Dwivedi knows very well how to stretch and align certain frames in order to create tension. Whether it was in the scene when Khejdi struggles to come to terms with her identity, or the scene in which she reveals her secret to someone close, Dwivedi uses long takes leaving the actors to take control of the emotional impact, and build up tension within the scene.