You have to tell your stories to be embraced, says Faraz Arif Ansari of his film Sheer Qorma

Faraz Arif Ansari’s short film Sheer Qorma has received a stupendous response. With a stellar leading cast comprising Shabana Azmi, Divya Dutta and Swara Bhasker, the film was premiered at the Frameline Fest in San Francisco, USA, in June and has been screened at numerous other festivals across the world since.

A touching story of two queer women who long to be accepted by their families as they are, the film takes us into the heart of a family, encouraging us to understand love in all its hues.

In an exclusive conversation with Cinestaan.com, Faraz Arif Ansari discussed his reasons for making this film, which presents two queer women from the Muslim community as they navigate their family dynamics.

Sheer Qorma review: Emotional film about accepting love in all its hues

Speaking of the inspiration for the film, Ansari said, “There were two very important reasons — one being under-representation and the other being misrepresentation. Being a queer person growing up in India in the 1990s, I often saw myself not being represented [on screen], and whenever there was some sort of a queer representation, it was misrepresented, and this bothered me.

"My journey as a filmmaker so far has been to make sure I see myself and see many people like me on screen, because visibility is important in cinema and in media. You have to be visible to be accepted. You have to tell your stories to be embraced. There is no other way to find acceptance. That sort of mainstream acceptance is required, and what better way than cinema? That was really my starting point for Sheer Qorma.

“I am from a Muslim family and I have seen Muslims being horribly represented across Indian cinema, most of it. Initially, we were the tawaifs [courtesans], then we became the terrorists, now we are barbarians who are invading India; never the protagonist, never someone who is progressive, never someone who is accepting identities and sexualities, and I really wanted to change that because I thought, where is my family? Why do I not see my family represented on screen? I think it is imperative to create that space and honour that representation. That really got me to make Sheer Qorma.”

Equipped with a script that dismantles commonly held beliefs about gender, sexuality and religion, Ansari set about finding the ideal cast to bring his vision to life. He got a dream cast with Azmi, Dutta and Swara all agreeing to come on board.

"While growing up, my mama gave me very important lessons," the filmmaker said, "and one of them was ‘Always aim for the stars, don’t ever short-sell your dream.’ I thoroughly believe in that. I made a wish list [of artistes] and Shabanaji, Divya, Swara were at the top. I was hopeful they would want to do the film and thankfully, after they read it, I think the film really aligned with who they are, not just as actors but as human beings. I think that struck a chord with them and I am blessed that I got to work with such fabulous actors. It was an absolutely beautiful experience with these three women.

“I feel the film is performance-oriented, so I really needed actors who would be able to communicate it. There are so many silences in the film. Divya’s performance when she breaks down, longing to speak with her mother, it only could have been done by someone like Divya, who really understands that. To express so much without words, so that sort of creation of that emotion in that particular space without the shot even moving, it has been so much of learning and unlearning for me as well, as a storyteller.”

Sharing an anecdote from the first day of the shoot, Ansari described the tension in the air as the first scene being shot was the film's emotional climax. “The first take I okayed for Shabanaji, she said, ‘I want to sit on the monitor and see what take you have okayed.’ I believe she wanted to know if I could do my job well.

"She went to the monitor, sat down, saw the take that I had okayed, and there was pindrop silence on the set. Everyone was nervous as she was watching the take. Then she turned to me, took her headphones off, kept a hand on my shoulder and said, ‘Your gaze is the gaze of love and I like that very much.’ And then she said, ‘Shabaash, jeete raho [Well done, may you live long].’

"After that, she never went back to the monitor. For a filmmaker to get that shabaashi from Shabanaji, I will never forget that. That was beautiful. I came home and told mom and she was jumping and I was jumping! It was quite something!”

Sheer Qorma was not only premiered at the Frameline Fest in San Francisco, but it also won the Best Film award there, a huge achievement for an Indian movie. “We had our world premiere at San Francisco at Frameline, which is considered the queer Oscars, and Sheer Qorma became the first Indian film to win Best Film!" Ansari said. "It was a big honour for an Indian film to have in 45 years of the festival.

"It is overwhelming, but at the same time it is a humbling experience because as a queer, brown filmmaker who works in India, you are told by a lot of people that the amount of exposure and opportunities are always going to be limited. People really want to put you in a box, but if you make a film with honesty and love and integrity, it is going to go to places you cannot even imagine, because that’s the power cinema has.”

The film was also screened at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne in Australia last month where it picked up the award for Best Film in the Equality in Cinema (Short Film) category. The audience reaction to the film has been quite heartwarming as well.

Ansari spent the lockdown channelizing his creative energies and writing scripts. He has two films in the pipeline, one a children’s film. “I feel like in Indian cinema, we don’t really make films about children and for children,” he said.

His other film is a romance between two men and takes us from Bombay to Delhi. “It really brings forward an interesting narrative of how love as an emotion, love as an expression and as an idea, has changed and evolved into something newer," Ansari said of the project. "The way we used to love five years ago is not the way we love anymore. Our expressions, our understanding about love has been transformed. I want to explore that evolution through a road trip involving two queer individuals.”

Sheer Qorma will be screened at the upcoming 16th Tasveer South Asia Film Festival scheduled to be held from 1–24 October in the Greater Seattle area in Washington, USA.