Entertainment / Must See! Deepa Mehta’s Much-Buzzed New Flick ‘Funny Boy’

Must See! Deepa Mehta’s Much-Buzzed New Flick ‘Funny Boy’

Entertainment Dec 04, 2020

by Matthew Currie

The iconic Canadian director’s gay coming-of-age drama Funny Boy debuts on CBC tonight and it’s a definite must-see!

Deepa Mehta is back in the Oscar conversation. After Water, the final entry in her Elements trilogy, scored a Best Foreign Language nod in 2007, it was recently announced that the Canadian writer-director’s latest, Funny Boy, is Canada’s official submission for Best International Feature in 2021. It’s just a submission at this point; there’s no guarantee yet the film will be nominated, but Mehta certainly has some heavyweight supporters in her corner this time, as Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY label picked the film up and will release on Netflix in America and other territories starting December 10. But first, it comes to Canada on Friday, December 4, via both CBC and the network’s free streaming service CBC Gem.

Based on the award-winning 1994 novel by Shyam Selvadurai (who co-wrote the film’s script with Mehta), this tender coming-of-age tale opens on Arjie (Arush Nand), a young Sri Lankan boy struggling with his sexual identity in the decade leading up to the 1983 riots that ignited civil war between the country’s Tamil and Sinhalese populations. Born to a wealthy Tamil family in Colombo, we first meet Arjie in the early-’70s, in full bridal dress and make-up, running gleefully alongside a train as he and some girls play a spirited game of marriage. It’s an act of personal expression that quickly earns him the label of “funny boy” from concerned relatives, who steer him toward more manly pursuits like cricket.

Must See! Deepa Mehta’s Much-Buzzed New Flick *Funny Boy*. (L-R) A teenaged Arjie (Brandon Ingram) sparks forbidden romance with Sinhalese classmate Shehan (Rehan Muddanayake). Photo Credit: Ridu Bharatram

Despite the intervention of his hip, worldly Aunt Radha (Agam Darshi), who slyly suggests acting as an outlet for his less traditional impulses, life doesn’t get much easier for Arjie as he enters his teen years (now played by Brandon Ingram) and finds first love with a Sinhalese classmate named Shehan (Rehan Muddanayake) — in a time and place where homosexuality is not only disapproved of, but illegal. All the while, rising ethnic tensions tighten like a vice on the boy, his family and their country.

Arjie and Shehan’s doubly-forbidden romance accounts for the film’s most compelling, subtle stretches, as the teens find ways to sneak affection in public, while seizing any chance their parents are away to use their respective mansions as a sanctuary, where their relationship can blossom to the tunes of David Bowie.

That said, this isn’t just Arjie’s story, his relatives not simply obstacles to overcome on the path to self-actualization. The country’s march toward carnage is experienced equally through the eyes of his mother Amma (Nimmi Harasgama) and father Appa (Ali Kazmi), who find their lives and beliefs upended by a world that’s shifting under their feet, particularly after a family friend (Shivantha Wijesinha) who used to be a member of the militant Tamil Tigers comes into the household. Kazmi, Harasgama and their director do well to imbue the characters with a level of nuance, even in the scenes when they’re functioning as antagonists in Arjie’s personal journey.

**Must See! Deepa Mehta’s Much-Buzzed New Flick *Funny Boy*: Deepa Mehta behind the scenes with star Agam Darshi (Aunt Radha). Photo Credit: Vamsi Krishna**

Also of note is Darshi, whose effervescent Aunt Radha, like the nephew she tries to take under her wing, struggles to maintain her sense of self under the crushing weight of social and familial expectation.

Mehta conjures it all with the same melancholic dazzle she lent to another adaptation: 2012’s Midnight’s Children (right down to that touch of magical realism). There are moments of stunning beauty and small, subtle heartbreak — though they’re sometimes stymied by blunt exposition that undercuts the film’s elegance.

There have, of course, also been questions as to whether Mehta and co. did enough to cast Tamil actors in Tamil roles. Each viewer will have to decide where they stand on that debate, and what impact it has on their willingness to watch.

Overall, the final product is a solid screen translation of a beloved, important novel.

**Must See! Deepa Mehta’s Much-Buzzed New Flick *Funny Boy*: Mehta behind the scenes with author/co-writer Shyam Selvadurai. Photo Credit: Maithili Venkataraman**

Funny Boy airs on CBC, and starts streaming on CBC Gem, Friday, December 4th.

Main Image Photo Credit: www.imdb.com

Matthew Currie

Author

A long-standing entertainment journalist, Currie is a graduate of the Professional Writing program at Toronto’s York University. He has spent the past number of years working as a freelancer for ANOKHI and for diverse publications such as Sharp, TV Week, CAA’s Westworld and BC Business. Currie ...

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Must See! Deepa Mehta’s Much-Buzzed New Flick ‘Funny Boy’

by Matthew Currie

Matthew Currie

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