10 must watch underrated queer films this Pride month

The west has been making queer-themed films for a while. Many of them have been well-received and celebrated for speaking an unique voice. We Indians though forget to appreciate great movies from the subcontinent made by our genius directors. The queer community repeatedly points out the need for true representation and not just a tokenistic, naive one. Even though there are still miles to go in this field, it is highlighted that in terms of queer media whether mainstream or not, some is better than none.

Pride month is just the right time to watch these movies and give them the recognition they truly and duly deserve. Here is a list of must-watch Indian and international queer movies:

A Place of Our Own is a new film from the Bhopal-based Ektara Collective. It is receiving its UK premiere at BFI Flare 2023. The movie revolves around the intimate quest of two transgender women (Roshni and Laila) and their journey in finding a place they can call their own. 

The movie highlights the discrimination, oppression and othering faced by the Trans community. It also brings light to tangible harm like displacement and violence faced by Roshni and Laila.
 

Aligarh is a social issue film directed by Hansal Mehta. It centers around the story of Professor Siras (Manoj Bajpayee), who was suspended from Aligarh University for having sex with another man. Siras was eventually found dead. The film also featured Rajkummar Rao. 

Joyland is based in inner Lahore and centers around a middle-class Rana family. Like every other typical Asian grandfather, this one also wants a grandson. He brings up this want with his daughter in-law Mumtaz who is forced to quit her job. Haider, the husband finds work at an erotic dance theatre to compensate. The story becomes more and more twisted as Haider falls in love with Biba Khan who works as a transgender dancer. 

Joyland had its world premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival on 23 May 2022, becoming the first Pakistani film to achieve it. It was shown in the Un Certain Regard section.It also received a standing ovation and won the festival's Jury Prize and the Queer Palm prize for best LGBTQ-themed film. 

The movie combines the experiences of filmmaker Shonali Bose as a bisexual woman and her cousin Malini Chib as a disability rights activist in India. Margarita with a Straw is the story of a queer disabled woman Laila (played by Kalki Koechlin) who goes on an intimate quest to find meaning in her sexuality. Bose came up with the idea for the film during a conversation with her cousin Malini Chib. 

Call Me by Your Name is set in 1980s Italy. The movie, based on a novel, talks about the romance between a seventeen-year-old student and the older man hired as his father's research assistant.
In Call Me by Your Name, André Aciman (author) implies that attraction often involves recognition of oneself in the other. As seventeen-year-old Elio (Timothee Chalamet) experiences his first relationship, he finds himself drawn to the ways he and Oliver are the same yet different.

Director Sean Baker found his leads two first-time film actors—at the actual donut shop where much of the movie's action takes place. Tangerine, 2015 was shot on IPhones along Santa Monica Boulevard's unofficial red light district. It follows two transgender sex workers and one lovesick cab driver. The movie unfolds the adventures of the three on an eventful Christmas Eve.

Jennifer’s body is a 2009 American horror comedy directed by Karyn Kusama. It is regarded as one of the most remarkable works of Megan Fox. The movie is about a newly-possessed high-school cheerleader Jennifer (Megan Fox) who turns into a succubus who specializes in killing her male classmates. Her best friend Anita (Amanda Seyfried) tries to put to end to this but gets seduced by Jennifer and fails.

Aik Larki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga is a story of a closeted lesbian, Sweety Chaudhary played by Sonam Kapoor and her attempts to come out to her conservative and traditional Punjabi family. The film is the first collaboration between real-life father and daughter Anil Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor. It was released globally on 1 February, 2019. The screenplay was also selected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for its library's Core Collection. 

Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan, a romantic-comedy film is the successor to the 2017 film Shubh Mangal Saavdhan. Starring Ayushmann Khuranna, the movie was directed by Hitesh Kewalya.
The plot revolves around a gay man and his partner and their pursuit of convincing the parents. The film is based in 2019 Varanasi.
 

Sheer Qorma, 2021 is an Indian drama short film about a queer romance. It was written and directed by Faraz Arif Ansari of Sisak fame and produced by Marijke Desouza. 

The movie starring Shabana Azmi, Divya Dutta and Swara Bhaskar, revolves around a woman and a non-binary person (played by Dutta and Swara Bhaskar) who are in love with each other. The filming began in the first week of August 2019 in Mumbai.
The film won Best Short Film Audience Award at the Frameline Film Festival and also qualified for the British Academy Film Awards 2021.