A gay boy rejected by his best friend is being comforted by his supportive mother, a couple contemplating their future on the beach, and a man catching a taxi on a rainy day, not expecting his boyfriend to break up with him before he gets home. And it all happens on the same day: February 14th, Valentine’s Day.
valentine @ 3 (2022), Directed by Mani Shankar Iyer, the film is a tribute to gay love, Chennai and the songs of Ilaiyaraaja. The narrative feature film, which weaves together 3 stories of gay men of different age groups, was screened at the Out & Loud Pune International Queer Film Festival held at Max Mueller Bhavan, Pune from May 24-26. It also won the Best Indian Narrative Feature Film and Best of Out & Loud PIQFF 2024 award.
Shailaja Chetlur, Sriviyas, Raj Kumar, Mohan Kumar Malika, Pradeep Vijayan and Rakesh, valentine @ 3 It is honest and relatable, painting three portraits of ordinary life and love struggles in a familiar, middle-class Indian setting, with gay characters as the focal point.
Stories
This unique compilation is entirely in Tamil, and has no background score, allowing the conversations between the characters to take the central role. We only hear Ilaiyaraaja’s music; a few songs hummed by a boy, a snippet playing on the radio, which a man is sharing with his girlfriend.
The first story features Satya, an 18-year-old college guy studying visual communication. Satya falls in love with his friend of many years, Melvin, and decides to confess his feelings to him on Valentine’s Day. Sadly, he is not only rejected (and even slapped), but is also thrown out by another friend without his consent. As he lies depressed in bed, his mother tries to console him and gives him some good advice over a cup of coffee. She listens patiently as he fondly recalls his memories with Melvin—meeting him in high school, their first bike ride, taking care of him when he had a fever, and meeting Melvin’s family. “I made sure to step into the house with my right foot,” he tells his mother seriously.
A scene from ‘Valentine @ 3’
Photo Credit: Shruti Darbhmulla
His supportive mother also tells him that it takes courage to admit his feelings and that he should stay true to their friendship, reassuring him that it is important. Later, when Melvin calls, and Satya hesitates to pick up, she picks up for him, telling Melvin that their friendship matters, repeating her words of wisdom to her son.
Then, we see the second story, which is of a couple, Prabhu and Kannan, who are in love and are 26 years old. They meet secretly on the beach after work, and their conversation turns to their families and the future, thinking about what works best. Today is the second anniversary of Kannan expressing his feelings to Prabhu. Kannan, in particular, is nervous about the future with his lover and worries about how he will face his military father. As they discuss their lives – sometimes seriously, sometimes lightly – there is an unexpected and sweet twist that strengthens their relationship and strengthens the bond between them.
The third story is about taxi driver Karvannan and the passenger Sarkesh, a theatre actor, whom he picks up on a rainy night. It is an everyday incident, but many layers get added to it as the passenger goes through an unexpected breakup through a phone call with his boyfriend Azar, who is engaged to a woman. His driver, of course, can hear everything, much to Sarkesh’s annoyance.
A scene from ‘Valentine @ 3’ | Photo Credit: Shruti Darbhamulla
However, Karvannan is empathetic. He has a heartbreaking story of his own; in an attempt to console his passenger, the taxi driver too opens up about his painful past. There is a whiff of Hindu-Muslim conflict in the narrative – Sarkesh lost his childhood friend Kabir as well as his father in the riots in his small town. Stories of blackmail, custodial violence, sexual abuse, homophobia and deep loss unfold during their conversation.
At the end of the anthology, all three stories come together by happy chance in a small café with a welcoming Pride flag hanging on its wall.
the creator
Valentine@3 It is the brainchild of independent filmmaker Mani Shankar Iyer, whose work is primarily in the Tamil language. After several short films and feature films, Iyer released his first feature film Sattam It earned 65 awards; he does one better with his second feature film, Valentine @3, Which has won 73 awards. It was also the opening film of the Utsav Film Festival in Mumbai and the closing film of the Chennai International Queer Film Festival.
Mani Shankar Aiyar speaking at the Out & Loud Film Pune International Queer Film Festival | Photo credit: Shruti Darbhamulla
The director explained that after making his first feature film about the LGBTQ community, he met many people from the community and discovered many stories that could be told. This has inspired him to make more films centered on the LGBTQ experience – such as Valentine@3 There are results.
Iyer is inspired by the work of Iranian filmmakers. However, the idea of the anthology came to him from the work of National Award-winning Tamil director Vasanth. (Sivaranjiniyum innum sila pengalum) Whom he has assisted in some films.
When asked to recommend a well-made film that focuses on gay or LGBTQ narratives, Iyer named the film How to Win at Checkers (Every Time)A 2015 film by Thai-Korean director Josh Kim in which an exploration of sexuality meets a tale of corruption and poverty. He says that Thailand, in general, is doing a good job at telling LGBTQ narratives, with storylines for both films and drama series (known as Boys’ Love Dramas, BLs for short) being “very intense”.
“Of course, India is moving ahead very fast,” he said. “We are nowhere behind.” FireDeepa Mehta’s pioneering 1996 film, and Sachin Kundalkar are also mentioned cobalt blue, Coincidentally, the film is set in Pune.And AligarhStarring Manoj Bajpayee in the lead role, it is among the recent notable works in India dealing with the LGBTQ experience.
And yes, his own too. valentine @ 3 It was shot in three and a half days on a budget of Rs 2 lakh. However, rehearsals went on for several months. He said that every setting of the film was shot in one go. The last story of Taxi was shot in a single take of 38 minutes. He said that the camera was set in such a way that the viewer felt as if he was watching a conversation. He stressed that cinema is a visual medium.
Ayer also stressed authenticity for his actors and said he told them that if they go out and “someone asks them ‘Hey you’re not really gay, you are throwing it away (You’re pretending)’, then you’ve failed,” but if they “asked for your number, then you’ve succeeded.”
