I know! Out of freaking nowhere, suddenly a movie with these two and that’s the main plot. It’s amazing.
I really do like how they’re treating Anil’s character, because it would have been so easy to make him colder and more of a typical desi movie father whose approval is only won at the very end, but you just don’t want that in this kind of movie. I really appreciate the much lighter tone where, yes, she’s closeted out of fear of rejection but there’s not really the overlay of fear for her literal life.
And! That she gets to tell him that he disappointed her too. I really like this new trend in coming out stories, like in Supergirl or Will & Grace, where it’s no longer only about the person coming out acting like they’re finally letting go of this shameful secret but shifting some of the weight onto the shoulders of the family and friends that made it so difficult in the first place. I think the whole story here is being framed in such a smart way. That it’s going to be the homophobia that breaks up a nice family, not her being gay. And that if you’re a cool, loving parent, you’ll accept your kid.
I was wondering at claims this was the First and went over to look up Fire’s status, whether it was considered an indie or what, and man, it was released in 1996, right, and if you go to the Controversies and reaction section on its wiki, there’s just paragraphs of its treatment by the censors and the theaters that were repeatedly violently attacked for showing it. Two decades later, here we are.