A Queer Tale : Re-reading of Vijay Tendulkar’s A Friend's Story

Abstract

The past, present and of course the future of Homosexuals and other similar marginalized sections of society are hugely impacted by the historic judgment of section 377. The marginalized, ignored, sidelined, and persecuted section of society has finally found a foothold to come out in the forefront. It has found some of the most powerful and impactful voices in the process of fighting against a prejudice that not only scarred the psyche but made the expression of freedom curtained and curtailed. It is to explore the reflection of such a seminal issue that the present paper revisits A Friend’s Story, a play written by Vijay Tendulkar. In A Friend's Story, which interestingly happens to be the first Indian play about homosexuality written in 1982, the body of the woman, her alternate inclination and understanding of gender and the institutional body of social power structures come into collision with the strictly prohibiting strictures  of the society around her sparking thereby the inherent controversy between individual rights and societal pressures. The present paper intends to focus on this seminal play and tries to trace the impact that the ruling of 377 has on a re-reading of the same. Did the dramatist succeed in writing ahead of his times? Did he become a voice of individual liberty? And finally did the play have that desired effect on the audience / readers that the playwrights intended? These will be some of the key areas that the paper aims to explore.