Published in: DFW SAFF 2019

DFW SAFF 2019 Film Review “Khejdi”

Author OneFilmFan

Published on: May 26, 2019

NO TRAILER CURRENTLY AVAILABLE

First, the Recap:

Why is it that what we don’t comprehend, we tend to lash out at? Instead of taking time to genuinely ascertain the meaning of something completely outside our normal sense of what IS “normal”, we choose to treat it with disrespect, abject fear, or even open hostility? Will we find that destroying something like this should absolve us of our own prejudices, or cause us to realize that it is that exact facet of our being that needs the conviction to change? The location is Rajasthan, and a village contained with it that is called home by an Ayurvedic doctor (Yashraj M. Jadhav) and his wife Laxmi. About to become newly minted parents with the arrival of their first child, the birth goes smoothly, but the results are not what’s expected–their child is born transgender.

After almost making a fatal decision, but also knowing the revealing of this fact will doom his child to a life of begging and potentially dangerous scrutiny and hostile intent, the doctor decides to hide Khejdi away from the village and its residents, formulating whatever lies he needs to to frighten the curious and allow her to have some semblance of a “life”, but restricted to being inside the home at all times. As time passes and Khejdi (Ashish Sharma) grows up, her natural inclination has been to create her own notions of what the outside world is while getting all too brief glimpses of it through small holes in the home’s mud walls. When inquisitiveness gives way to action by Khejdi, it becomes a journey of self-discovery and a miraculous transformation in life. But, will it last, or will the harsh cruelty of an intolerant, uneasy, spiteful society win out?

Next, my Mind:

Presented as the feature film arm of the LGBTQI programming at the 2019 Dallas Fort Worth South Asian Film Festival sponsored by Toyota USA, it also heralded the North American premier for director Rohit Dwivedi, screenplay writer/producer Archana Taide Sharma, dialogue writer Raghuvir Shekhawat, actor/screenplay writer/producer Ashish Sharma, and creative producer Kunal M. Shah. To say this film was emotionally charged, beautiful but brutal, stirring yet disquieting, inspired yet haunting, and filled with truths both noteworthy and bluntly candid would assuredly feel like an understatement thanks to the film’s exceptionally executed narrative that wastes no time from start to finish in delivering a keenly formidable picture of exactly what power fear, undue judgement, discrimination, and unacceptance hold over the human mind when confronted with any idea that doesn’t fit “the mold” of normalcy and societal convention.

Initiated by one father’s own feelings of shame and insecurity, nightmares of what his daughter will become wafting through his sleeping hours notwithstanding, events unfold for a child to experience nothing but the shadows and the small inner space of their quaint abode, satisfied with her father’s attention and caregiving. However, once grown and having been at least privy in brief glimpses to the reality of life beyond her prescribed “borders”, there arises a warring inward battle for Khejdi to discern exactly what and who she is in body and gender, an exploration that proves both eerily stimulating and painfully tragic, all in the face of knowing her father is lying about the real reasons why she cannot enter the outside community. Once this barrier is broken, it opens up a literal new existence for Khejdi, one that proves her father wrong in his apprehensions, and ushering in a new cycle of longed for approval and welcoming as she takes all she’s learned from her father’s Ayurvedic practices and applies the knowledge to become lauded by the village.

To further solidify this, she marries, though whom it is to still leaves a certain amount of both unspoken and verbalized awkwardness, as it is two people struggling to fully acknowledge and concede their imperfections. Even when things finally seem to be going perfectly for Khejdi, a random incident occurs that brings to light that which had been hidden for so long, causing a flurry of uninhibited violence towards her that culminates in the film’s flat out disturbing finale, which definitively places a harrowing cap on the film’s themes and intentionally jolting message of injustice towards the transgender community in India. To emphasize said objectives, the film is visually graphic in a multitude of ways, including brief nudity and overt violence, but it all actually fits the narrative’s cause, and does so with an unapologetic lens so as to very much drive home the arguments and actualities being presented. Moments are here that were totally uncomfortable to view, yet it is this sense of complete unease that make it so effective and emotionally consuming that by the film’s end, you literally feel out of breath. It’s deliberate, folks, and it DOES work!

I state this next thought through total assumption, this being my first experience witnessing the actor in action, but I feel confident to conclude that Sharma has turned in the performance of a lifetime to date through his role as Khejdi, born as an intersex child that was originally unwanted by her nervous, tense father who believed nothing good could come from keeping her. Avoiding total disaster, Khejdi ends up raised in the rugged isolation of her father’s home, unable to even go outside for fear of what her father says is the “virus” she would catch, which is finally understood in general once she grows up enough to learn for herself there is life outside of the “prison” she’s in, that she desires to know it, and that it will ultimately lead to determining who she is and what she can strive to attain. When this has come about, it seems as if there is no limit to the impact she will have on her community. Yet, one random occurrence changes the entire vision of a peaceful, settled life Khejdi only began to experience, and it is replaced with biting ridicule, unrestrained anger, and severe savagery. Despite this, Khejdi stands firm in her convictions to be who she is and remain proud of it, throwing accusations towards those who truly deserve it, even if it means further harm to her own person. Throughout this film, the level of arresting intensity the character must exhibit, whether subtle or profound, is constant and Sharma embodies every moment with an affecting and vehement performance that you will feel through ever fiber of your being.

Primary supporting turns are present from Jadhav as Khejdi’s Ayurvedic father and protector who does his level best to keep the truth about her away from prying eyes and tainted hearts fearing what’s different in their Rajasthani village, but only is able to do so for so long before a grown Khejdi needs to be allowed to know the world directly, and Akash Pratap Singh as Mangal, a local man who has severe trouble come upon himself that likewise makes him a “oddity” and unwanted, at least until an arranged marriage to Khejdi comes about. A wealth of additional supporting characters are present as delivered by Priyanka Agarwal, Sahil Bhati, Bertwin Ravi Dsouza, Sapna Ji, Altaf Khan, Poornima Koul, Mamta Mathur, Rajesh Meena, Baby Monica, Manish Pandey, Krishna Murari Pareek, Jitendra Parmar, Renu Seth, Rajveer Singh, Vinod Soni, Master Sunil, Nikita Verma, and Zoya. In total, while the overall subject matter presented is not a personal favorite for this critic (and that’s personal preference, not prejudice), there is no getting past the fact that “Khejdi” is one fantastically created piece of film art that most definitely showcases the unfettered nature of the independent filmmaking community and the willingness to pull no punches in conveying the greater truths that if we at least don’t find a way to suppress the malignant trend of hate in this world, finding better, more productive ways even to disagree, then occurrences like depicted here will actually continue to go on off screen instead of just on it. May that be a trend we as human beings choose to change.

As always, this is all for your consideration and comment. Until next time, thank you for reading!