A humourous take on a serious issue

But having a humourous yet sensitive take on the same is a hard task and that’s what Underdog Entertainment’s ‘Love, Sex & Section 377’, staged at the Rangoli Art Centre recently, did.

 

‘Love, Sex & Section 377’ was a satire on the judgement that illegalised sexual intercourse of same sex couples. 

It was a comical take on this order and narrated how the world would be adversely affected by this decision.

The play started off with a guy trying to strike a conversation with a girl in vain.

It went on to show the girl instantly getting along with a gay man as a result of which, straight men start hating the gay fraternity. 

 

The play portrayed funny situations like if gays were allowed to co-exist with straight people, the fashion industry would be affected, snapping wouldn’t be fashionable anymore and dancing would become boring. 

It also highlighted the irony of the judgement in a country where rape is brushed off. 

 

The lively performance had the actors involving the audience in between. Chaitanya, the director of the play, said that the play was initially performed in Hyderabad. 

“It was first performed in front of an LGBT crowd and thus, when we brought it here for the public, I was a bit nervous. But the crowd’s response was very positive and exceeded my expectations,” he said.

 

The impressed audience were at a loss of words to express their appreciation. Amrita Gurmeet said that fusing humour into such a serious issue was a difficult task and that the actors and director had done a good job.

 

“This play proved that no elaborate sets or props are required to make an impact on the 

audience. The performance was extremely powerful,” she said. 

Amrita also added that since she had watched a few of their plays earlier, she was sure that this play would live up to her expectations.

 

Karan Sanghvi, another member of the audience, said that he was excited to see more and more straight people attending such events and extending their support to gay people.

 “Just like how we don’t want to be discriminated on the basis of our surnames, caste or religion, no one should be discriminated on the basis of sexuality. I still can’t understand how some things are defined as normal. We wake up to newspapers full of reports about people sexually harassing children in their own family, son killing father, scams and other crimes — if all this is normal, how is sexuality ‘abnormal’,” he asked.