Legibility, Erasure, and the Neoliberal Assimilation of Same-Sex Desire in Dostana

Abstract

After the liberalization of the Indian economy in 1991, scholars pointed out two significant developments in the Hindi film industry: there were more depictions of same-sex desire onscreen; and Bombay had suddenly disappeared as the setting of most of the movies, with exotic and beautiful foreign locations taking its place. This essay examines Tarun Mansukhani's film Dostana (2008) to show that the film contains the threat of registering same-sex desire in the public discourse by creating a complex dynamic of legibility and erasure. This collusion with neoliberal ideology effectively prevents the possibility of any significant validation of queer life in the film.