Debadrita Bose | The Clarinets / 2017

licorice

by Douglas Messerli

 

Debadrita Bose (screenplay and director) The Clarinets / 2017 [23 minutes]

 

Anil (Sukrit) has come to the city to buy a material a gown and other gifts for the bride back in his small rural village whom he will soon marry. We later discover that he’s not yet seen his bride, but his parents, wanting him to marry, have arranged the wedding and is determined not to disappoint them.

     This beautiful Indian film, directed by Debadrita Bose, gets underway, however, as Anil has missed the bus back, and is now waiting, presumably through the night, for the next bus to arrive in the morning.

      Suddenly, a young man asks him for a match, immediately striking up a conversation, beginning with a query of why Anil is sitting there so late at night. The boy explains his situation and almost immediately the newcomer claims he knows of place where he can sleep.

      Anil demurs, but the other insists that it’s near, and that he, himself, often spends the night there. Anil is so unsure of the situation, but the other man, named Mobile (Dodo) we are soon told, is so friendly that he convinces him to join him.

    Almost immediately as the two enter the building we realize something is amiss, with several individuals camped out on the steps that lead up the rooms. Once they reach the second floor, Mobile immediately takes him into a room where several transsexuals and some gay men are gathered, all quickly turning their attention to Anil, grabbing up the package with the beautiful dress material and teasing the young man for having brought them such a lavish present. A couple attempt to give him kisses, but he pulls back, demanding back his passage, Mobile calming down the situation as he pulls the dress material back and hands it to Anil, moving him off into another space.

     But Anil now cowers on the floor, realizing that Mobile has taken him to what is basically a house of gay prostitution, and insists on knowing why his new friend has taken him there knowing that he was straight and soon to be married.

   Mobile attempts to calm him down and relax him, bringing him a small plate of food and explaining that he comes there regularly and they don’t touch him, although he doesn’t deny that he is also gay. In fact, as Anil finally begins to eat and seems more relaxed, he asks if the boy has truly been shocked by the experience.

       Anil admits that, even in the small village where he lives he knows that some men love other men; but it is not for him. Nonetheless, when Anil relaxes a bit further, Mobile does attempt to kiss him, Anil once more cowering like a hurt bird, his hands covering his face as if they were wings. Mobile apologizes.

       He explains that he too might some day like to get married—but not a woman. And once more he reports that he regularly comes here without being sexually solicited and attacked. I do what I want, he concludes. But soon he reports that every night he sleeps in this place and during the day goes to work, returning here as if it were his home. It is clear that this man is lonely and has sought out Anil for the possibility of sex. Once more he assures Anil that he won’t touch him and that he can leave in the morning, at least being able to sleep inside. “When we grew he moved to some other place.”

      Throughout this short film there is a great deal of silence and even cessation of movement, and these two, silence and stillness now follow as Anil attempts to assimilate one has happened to him. Finally, he suggests that Mobile reminds him in his smile of a young boy with who you used to bicycle and swim together with in his youth.

     Once again he grows silent and Mobile basically turns from him. But gradually he moves his had up to Mobile’s face, touching it as if he were a blind man exploring the features of his new acquaintance. Before long his touches become something closer to strokes, and finally he moves in for a kiss. But at that moment, Mobile backs away explaining that he has lied to him, that his real name is Rafiq. He explains that it’s bad enough to be a faggot, but to be Muslim as well….impossible. Everyone knows him as Mobile, and Anil is first to whom he has admitted his real name. The two now kiss deeply, as if the admission has opened a door between them and they are finally free to fully express their sexual desire and love.

    This film has begun with just the silence and stillness that I mention above, devoting 4.10 minutes to the central character’s awakening in bed, eventually pulling on his sweater, and gradually leaving the bed, moving to the next room where he takes out the beautiful pink material we later discover he plans to bring to his bride as he refolds it several times. As our eyes scan the rooms we eventually do spot the naked back of a man who remains in the bed.

       We now realize that that early scene was of Anil rising from his night with Mobile/Rafiq, that he is slowly readying himself to leave. We return to that scene with Anil sitting on the floor smoking a cigarette as Mobile rolls over in bed. Gradually Anil pulls together his packages, puts on his backpack and leaves the place.

       As he moves down the narrow alley way, Anil encounters one of the gay boys who asks: “Hey lover boy, did you sleep at all or did your Mobile make love through the whole night?”

        Anil moves on, finally reaching the street and arriving at the bus stop, now in the midst of a busy avenue. A bus drives by, but Anil makes no attempt to get on. Almost in slow motion, he turns around and begins walking back toward the house he has left where Mobile is still sleeping. We hear the tinkle of the small bells tied to the wedding material, as Mobile finally opens his eyes surely to see Anil having returned to him. Obviously, Anil has discovered his own sexuality in the night.

 

Los Angeles, February 21, 2024

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (February 2024).