If you are a movie buff, Bombay is the movie to watch. It's so good, I had goosebumps on both my hands throughout. It's so sensuous and sensitive and at the same time, sensible. Given that Mani Ratnam has directed it, there is not much to be surprised about for he always comes up with fantastic movies but nonetheless, appreciating a superb work never did anybody any harm. I loved it for it's romance, picture and the themes it works on. Acting is naturally outstanding ( c'mon, it's Mani Ratnam!) and so is the music, again not surprising it's A. R. Rehman- he always comes up with something new and exicting. It's music so tempting for its newness, coolness and ear-soothing nature that it automatically becomes pleasing and refreshing. ( The movie came in 1995 and still it has this effect on school and college goers!)

The best thing about this movie, after direction, is the picturisation and cinematography. Camera work is fantastic and it captures everything in its earnestness.Picture work is simply exotic- the locales of South India showcase true nature in it's purity. The love affair of the protagonists is shot in complelete chastity and aesthete defines the first half while the second half explores and highlights politics of the futility of communal hatred alongwith the hyper-sensitive mob. The combination of the specific and the general is beautifully done.

Just watch this one to believe it, it's so much more than a worthwatch...

One of the very interesting angles that I have come across on the debate against homosexuality is that it is "unnatural".
The legal, religious, historical or any other superficial and over-stated theories can be accepted for a while, even though they are all full of crap and don't deserve even a second, but let's pretend they have a ground simply on the basis of so-called facts.
But how does this "unnatural" thing be justified?
I mean what really is unnatural? According to Oxford, it is something contrary to nature; i.e. extremely cruel or wicked; lacking natural feelings.
But, then, is love and affection contrary to nature? Isn't that the whole basis of it! And can feelings so pure and chaste as love be called, or even related anyhow to, cruelty or wickedness?
And surely, nobody will dispute that love, attraction & affection are purely natural AND unavoidable ( even if you try to suppress it) in life.
Just as being a "white" doesn't give you the right to discriminate a black or being a Hindu majority in India doesn't buy you the right to exploit or inflame the minorities, how can you being a heterosexual ( majority) discriminate a homosexual ( the disadvantaged minorities)? Just because a law was put in the Indian Constitution by the great visionaries of this country- who had, undisputedly, a very broad-minded approach towards everything but, apparently, were myopic or, for that matter, ignorant in accepting this fact of life.
When love between man & woman can be called as perfectly normal, then how can the same love but between the same-sex be termed unnatural? Isn't that hypocrisy and false virtue?
Brainwashing is one reason I would assert for this false sanctimony of people. They are so used to things- so used to being themselves & seeing themselves around and, most importantly, so used to seeing everything else under-cover that they don't want to accept things brazenly and come out clean. But instead, they would rather go on & on about the superficial and artificially created "unnatural" mania.
The fact is that neither is it unnatural ( for love is what binds us all- man to man and man to nature) nor is it anti- human ( for love and affection are so human that it is beyond contesting). About being anti-religious, let us not worry about that because it preaches love and humanity and when it condemns, it is the human interpretation of it which has been twisted to suit own needs and spirituality has no space for love and lust & so, no point looking at it. Historically, there are numerous examples of people being attracted to the same sex in our epics and many other books, so homosexuality isn't an alien concept to our culture. So, it;s only the awfully inhuman law- Section 377- which is against it and hopefully it'll be snapped soon.
So, hope is not dead in me. I am looking forward to seeing India as one of the liberal and accepting countries of the world where Sovereignty of life and emotions prevail.. in general...