Taali for Sushmita, and the trans rights activist she portrays

Parbina Rashid

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“Taali — Bajaungi nahi, bajwaungi” (I will not clap, but make others clap). Gauri Sawant thunders in one of those many triumphant moments during her relentless fight for identity, survival and equality. But the round of applause actually goes to Sushmita Sen for her superb portrayal of Shreegauri Sawant, whose life director Ravi Jadhav chronicles in this six-episode biographical series.

A renowned trans rights activist and social worker based in Mumbai, Gauri was a petitioner in the landmark Supreme Court ruling in 2014 that accorded the transgender community a range of civil rights. She runs Sakhi Char Chowghi for transgender people. She was made the goodwill ambassador of the Election Commission in Maharashtra. She was featured in an ad by Vicks. She also appeared in an episode of ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’, along with Usha Uthup, whose trademark bindis and traditional sarees shaped Sawant’s fashion sensibility.

These are some of the facts about Sawant readily available online. We know it, and she knows it too. In the run-up to the historic Supreme Court judgment, she tells journalist Amanda, “I am tired of telling the same things, and probably, people are also tired of hearing the same things… ask me something new.”

Jadhav teases us with this dialogue that holds the promise of something new, but forgets about it as he reconstructs Gauri’s life in a series of flashbacks. His chronicling of Sawant’s extraordinary journey — childhood, transition, motherhood — ‘Gaali Se Taali Tak’, to quote the protagonist, seems more like the cinematic version of the Wikipedia page on Sawant’s life and achievement. We see her struggles, but not her inner conflicts.

Gauri, Ganesh by birth (Krutika Deo plays the younger Ganesh), runs away from home in Pune after his mother’s death. The struggles of this effeminate boy on the Mumbai streets are all too predictable. He does odd jobs, wears a moustache to work as a waiter. His association with gay rights activist Naveen (Ankur Bhatia) proves to be the turning point.

On the home front, Ganesh’s police officer father cuts all ties with his son. And when he gets to know that he has gone through a sex-change operation, he declares him dead.

This is one series which comes close to capturing the world of transgender community in all its shades — good, bad and ugly. No, transgenders are not a homogenous tribe like most Bollywood productions would have us believe. There are divisions of class and social standing, not to forget those fake ones who are out on the street to make a few bucks.

‘Taali’ falters while showing Ganesh’s final transformation into Gauri. The sex-change procedure, which is an expensive process requiring several surgeries, is done in a single sweep. Ganesh goes for it as a section of the transgender community refuses to embrace the transformational steps initiated by the NGO he works for just because he is not one of them in body and spirit. We wait to witness some inner turmoil in Ganesh’s part, but it does not come. Instead, we get some funny one-liners (a strong point of the series). Post-surgery, the timid Ganesh turns into a fiery Gauri. Is it the feeling of belongingness that triggers a changed behavioural pattern, or is her long struggle responsible for it? We don’t come to know. But Gauri suddenly becomes more of a celebration than a real person.

The gripping narrative may go slack at times for the want of a nuanced execution, but no one can fault Sushmita Sen’s real transformation for this part. She gained weight, learnt Marathi diction, immersed herself in Shreegauri’s persona without prosthetics, banking solely on makeup to create authentic facial features, complete with beard and sideburns. Though she boasts about her photogenic left profile in the series, this is one profile that will stand out in Sushmita’s oeuvre for times to come.