Critique: Funny Boy (Film)

This was a truly lovely film. It’s about Arjie, a gay Tamil who dates the Sinhalese Shehan to the backdrop of the Sri Lankan civil war.

 

*****SPOILERS*****

 

Choosing the notable positives (aside from Arjie and Shehan’s relationship which gets its own section) was rather difficult. Not because there weren’t any but because there were so many.

Radha Aunty teaches Arjie the phrase, ‘Don’t mess with the grand diva!’ which I absolutely love.

In the garage, Arjie and Shehan are kissing and, presumably, at least partially naked. Arjie’s sister tells Appa (their father) to get the boys to ‘come out’. Considering this is when Appa finds out Arjie’s gay, this was amusing.

Arjie still lives at home after he’s caught. It’s good his family didn’t throw him onto the street.

 

The negatives are minor. In reality, they can ne negated with outside information.

When the family flee, they end up living on the streets as refugees. That’s fine. Yet four months later, the family are staying in a small mansion before flying to Canada. I do have to wonder: if they could afford a mansion and plane tickets, why were they ever street-living refugees? Maybe Tamil bank accounts were frozen or people refused to sell things to Tamils. With such rife discrimination, this wouldn’t surprise me.

Loads of characters kept on saying, ‘If you don’t X, I’ll kill you.’ This seems like an extreme sentence in any situation and thus rarely or ever used. So why do so many characters (Tamil and Sinhalese) say it? Is it a Sri Lankan thing?

Many Tamil characters were played by Sinhalese people. Obviously this isn’t the best thing in the world. Apparently Tamil actors were hard to come by for a gay film. Should this stop the production of a film? I don’t think so, especially when it has an important message.

 

Arjie’s relationship with Shehan is shown very well. Considering Arjie saw Radha Aunty’s relationship with a Sinhalese fall apart, it’s good he didn’t discriminate with Shehan.

Arjie used to play brides with his female cousins but that was put to an end by Appa. This is when he started to worry that Arjie would be a ‘funny boy’. This is why Appa sends Arjie to Victoria Academy to force him ‘to become a man.’ This obviously backfires because this is how Arjie gets a boyfriend.

The headteacher of Victoria Academy wants Arjie to recite poems in front of an important audience. Arjie messes up on purpose because the headteacher has been beating Shehan.

Amma and Appa tell the kids to only pack what’s important when they flee from the rioters. So Arjie changes into the shirt Shehan gave to him. That was moving.

When Arjie and Shehan said goodbye before Arjie moved to Canada, they didn’t kiss. Just hugged. This was far more moving. But then this feeling was deepened when, after both started to walk away, they turned around for another squeeze.

 

Definitely a beautiful film. Any negatives are really minor so they do nothing to detract from the good moments of the film. (Which is most of the moments.)