Aligarh (2015)

A gay, linguistic professor living in a small orthodox city must deal with the aftermath of a sting operation that puts his sexual orientation in front of the entire nation.

Director:

Hansal Mehta

Writers:

Apurva Asrani (story), Apurva Asrani (screenplay and dialogue)

Stars:

Manoj Bajpayee, Rajkummar Rao, Ashish Vidyarthi

Top Rated Indian Movies #171 | 4 wins & 6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Manoj Bajpayee	...	Professor Ramchandra Siras
Rajkummar Rao	...	Deepu Sebastian
Ashish Vidyarthi	...	Advocate Anand Grover
Balaji Gauri	...	Nita Grewal
Sukhesh Arora	...	Tahir Islam
Nutan Surya	...	Anjali Gopalan
Dilnaz Irani	...	Namita
Ishwak Singh	...	Arvind Narayan
Sumit Gulati	...	Tashi
K.R. Parmeshwar	...	Prof. Sridharan
Suman Vaidya	...	Shadab Qureshi
Saptrishi Ghosh	...	Nita Grewal's Assistant
Eisha Chopra	...	Sonali
Farrukh Jaffar	...	Deepu's Landlord
Sachin Parikh	...	Anuj

Storyline

Set in the state of Uttar Pradesh and based on true events, the plot revolves around Dr Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras who taught Marathi at Aligarh Muslim University. He was sacked from his position of Reader and Chair of Modern Indian Languages, on charges of homosexuality. A sting operation was conducted by a TV channel which showed him in an embrace with a rickshaw puller, at his house inside the campus.

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Plot Keywords:

homosexuality | homosexual | love | gay | poetry | 

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Genres:

Biography | Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Nawazuddin Siddique was first approached to play the lead role but declined. This was due to a problem he had with Hansal Mehta during the shooting of Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar in 2000.

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Connections

Featured in 62nd Filmfare Awards (2017)

User Reviews

Excellent film

Aligarh was chosen as the opening film of the Mumbai Film Festival and I went to see it wondering if the story, based on real life events, had been sanitized for the screen. To the screenplay writer and director's credit it has not. The sad story of 64 year old Professor Sirus, who was suspended and systematically harassed by Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) for having gay sex with a cycle-rickshaw driver, has been told here in all its poignancy. In it's time, it was a big case for gay rights in India, but Sirus was a frustratingly difficult protagonist, an unattractive personage unwillingly to face the media, unwilling to identify as gay, unable to see the larger issues at stake. Manoj Bajpayee does an excellent job in the complex role of the unhappy Sirus, with all its contradictions. He's shown drinking excessively every night, listening to maudlin Lata Mangeshkar songs. I don't know if Rajkumar Rao is based on a real-life character, but he plays a crucial role as the reporter who tries to draw Sirus out of his shell. He only party succeeds. For one, Sirus was very proud of his position as professor of Marathi at AMU and he was very loyal to AMU itself. He tells Rao he the victim of campus politics because he was promoted to chair the linguistics department, provoking petty jealousies. People knew he was homosexual and used it against him, sending two goons to break into his house to film him having sex. What followed was a downward spiral, but Hansal Mehta somehow manages to keep things from getting too depressing. One interesting scene has the now famous Professor Sirus being invited to a sophisticated gay gathering while in the city, where his newfound fans insist he sing a Marathi song. He does so, rather badly, and then collapses drunk.

Details

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Release Date:

26 February 2016 (India)

Also Known As:

Алигарх

Filming Locations:

Bareilly, India

Company Credits

Production Co:

Eros International, Karma Pictures

Technical Specs

Color:

Color