What is the meaning of Velipādu: The Revelation and how does it relate to the film’s core theme
of self-discovery?
Jijo Jessy Kuriakose: Velipādu- is the last book in the Bible. The Word, in its spiritual sense, means gaining understanding on something which was unknown before and also points to disclosing this understanding to others. The film uses the title as a metaphor to mark self-acceptance of one’ sexual orientation considering the verity that the protagonist of the film is a homoromantic/homosexual person. The script carries hints on a path towards self-discovery, say the dialogues like ‘Solomon got wisdom at night’, or the lyrical elements like ‘Is this right Or this torment of truth’. During the script writing process I had consulted with a few Christian priests who are closeted gay persons, who shared how the internal conflict of faith versus sexual orientation harms their psyche. Johnny’s(The protagonist’s) life journey takes a major turn, once he comes to terms, on a hopeful note, with his sexual orientation, and thereafter the pace of his breath moves to joyful rhythms rather than his previous bewildered and grieving life instances.
How does the film use Christian imagery, music, and rituals to explore the internal conflict
between faith and homosexual desire?
Jijo Jessy Kuriakose: My state, Kerala, is very much a culturally rooted state and has a plethora of religion specific cultural symbols in every realm of human lives. Growing up in a Jacobite Christian family, I was certainly enticed by the bearded priests and their vocals during chanting Syriac Language hymns. I believe
that humans tend to find connections with their innate identities from the immediate surroundings
where they dwell in. For me, the imagery from Biblical tales were quite homosocial and bromantic in
nature. Moreover the sense of sound, touch and taste excite me quite a lot, when it comes to
understanding romance and intimacies, from the linguistic and cultural contexts. Therefore using
Christian background in the film was a conscious choice, not only as an attempt to challenge the
Homophobic attitude of Churches in India, but also as an artistic response to narrate the beauty of
male-male bonding and Love.
In what ways does the character of Johnny embody the tension between religious devotion and
personal truth?
Jijo Jessy Kuriakose: If internalised homophobia is a major reason for gay persons to stay sorrowful and betray their romantic partner(s), I am not of the opinion that we must blame them. The root reason , Heteronormativity, needs to be addressed in all possible ways. In case of Deacon Johnny (who belongs to Jacobite Xi’an denomination, where Priests have the option to get married unlike Catholic Priests for whom Celibacy is a mandate), he had to take a stand while he was caught by the Seminarians for his expression of romance to his long term mate Jo. Initially his lack of self-acceptance stands less vital, here, for he choses to pursue priesthood which demands rejection of same-sex desire. Johnny at a later point in his life chooses to be himself, for he informs the girl, whom he was engaged to , that she deserves someone who can love her the way she wants. Christianity also teaches its followers to constantly bear the pain of Sin, which is a complicated social matter, considering what constitutes sin and its definition. Should human lives be dictated to not act on their innate feelings like romance and sexual desire? Johnny is a representative of numerous gay persons who struggle owing to social and religions moral.
How does the film reimagine gay Malayali desire through regional and sensory elements like food,
music, and touch?
Jijo Jessy Kuriakose: There have been N number of stories, published by cis-heterosexual people on gay romance and desire, in Malayalam. I, hardly, could relate with any of the stories except a few, because all the tales were written from a hetersexual person POV . I believe that when queer people present their own stories, the first person narrative takes place and becomes politically significant. Food, for me, is like sexual desire, which I explore quite a lot. I believe that Cooking for my dear ones is my language of Love, and as a gay man who enjoys cooking quite a lot, I used elements of food as a fetishful element in the film. Touch and Music were embroidered together to make the film more culturally significant- queer subculture specific- to precisely say. The gist of enjoying belongingness outside closed rooms is something I cherish a lot and regional aspects of the same have been deployed in the film’s scenes. Also, for me erotica is something beyond the definitions of sexual acts. As we humans experience everything happening around us through the senses we are blessed with, I continue to nurture notions on how senses enthrall us with instances of erotica. How can we not cherish the erotic possibilities offered by touch, sound, smell and taste?? AAH!
What role does the Malayalam language and regional culture play in portraying queer intimacy and
subcultural expressions of love?
Jijo Jessy Kuriakose: Malayalam as a language, has been queer sensitive and inclusive only recently. However the verbal linguistic slurs used by cis-hetero people to insult queer persons still hold dominance in cultural andsocial media spaces. We can find certain interesting elements of queer-brotherhood in the literary works, in Malayalam, in addition to untold life stories of hundreds of gay persons living here.The culture as such isn’t queer sensitive, instead we queer people continue to do our part for wider understanding on intersections on gender and sexual orientations. I would say, my state is very much homophobic!
The film blends semi-autobiography with fiction — how does this personal lens influence the narrative
and emotional tone of the story?
Jijo Jessy Kuriakose: For many a queer people, or queer artists in general, their first film/story/novel work tends to carry personal narratives beyond fictional elements. Along that line Velipādu also carries personal elements, for instance the coming out scene of Deacon Johnny is very much derived from my own coming out instance, in the past; for I was engaged to a woman and I came out post the engagement ceremony. Presenting emotions in a film becomes quite challenging, when we aim to get the film to a wider audience including allies to whom gay romance might not be a familiar one. In our film using color palette was of aid to set the mood throughout the film along with the interesting play of music along the sensual lines of erotica. The seminary related instances told in the film are from lives of few gay men who were expelled from seminaries after they were found to be homosexuals.
How does Velipādu challenge stereotypical representations of same-sex relationships often seen in
Indian cinema?
Jijo Jessy Kuriakose: I am of the opinion that the topic of sexual orientation, at times, need to be addressed separately fromthe vast area of gender and gender identity, for the trend to portray(as caricatured by cis-hetero filmmakers and cultural flag bearers) sexual orientation synonymous with gender expressions continue in art and cultural platforms. Rather than presenting any challenge, I wanted to tell how I understand homosexual affection and fondness among men and how certain elements of social lives can act as hurdles to experience or express the former. I also don’t receive the notion that same-sex romance shall be presented as a replica of heteronormative relationships, but gay relationships are different for many reasons, not to specially mention the troubles owing to survival over suicide, risks of rejection over bravery for coming out and so on. Having been into ground level activism for more than fifteen years, I realised that many queer persons in India are not really exposed to the queer vocabulary or information about pride events or interventions pertaining to inclusion; yet they experience gay/queer desire. Thus queer desire as a Universal topic is what I am more interested in, being an artist, photographer and filmmaker. Moreover Malayalam cinema and literature, expect new favorable narratives, continue to place LGBTIQ individuals at the receiving end of violence, or as protagonists who do crime to hide their queerness, or merely as sexually submissive or abusive beings, thereby satisfying the hetersexual male gaze. If at all there is a major task we must collectively challenge, I would say that is the fight against heteronormativity.
The director refers to the film as a “bitter-sweet rhapsody” — which scenes or moments do you think
best reflect this description?
Jijo Jessy Kuriakose: This is quite a tricky question, I would say. Some of the scenes in the films are visualised as an interplay of reality versus dream and thoughts versus actual happening. I as an artist always have special interest in mystical elements and fantasies, which as such are a matter of HOPE for me. I believe that hope makes humans move on amid survival challenges, and with this wisdom I would day, the three songs’ parts and the supper/feast scene reflect the description, the best!
What do you think the film is saying about the possibilities of romantic relationships beyond traditional or binary expectations?
Jijo Jessy Kuriakose: Monogamy is a social construct meant to pass on wealth and maintain caste/race stuff within certain communities, and the rest of the world adopted the same as a relationship mandate. I am not of the opinion that non-monogamy is a solution to traditional live-in or romantic relationships. But monogamy should not be the Ideal form of romantic relationship. If people think they fit in polyamorous romantic/sexual/live-in relationships, whom are we to advise them on the advantages or merits of monogamy? In fact the world monogamy as such needs to be rephrased as mono-partnered
relationships, for any term that comes with ‘gamy’ is out of the historical attempts to place women in
control and we don’t really think that a woman with multiple relationships is named as polyandrous
person. We hardly use the term mono-andry(meaning having only one male partner). If we advocate for
gender neutral systems then the term monogamy should be re-termed as mono-partnered!
Regarding our film which ends with the suggestion of three adult men being in a live-in relationship,
which points out the possibility of polyamory, for those men they found comfort and safety within their
amity and minds. The more we understand about human diversity, we will create novel depictions on
diversity pertaining to romantic relationships in parallel to representations of Sexual Orientation.
How can Velipādu: The Revelation serve as a form of queer activism and self-representation for
other regional queer voices in India?
Jijo Jessy Kuriakose: I always had the self-doubt that I could ever do a film, the journey for which was years long. If I can answer the question is two sentences I would prefer to say: a) Making films is a way to learn film making, especially when You have not studied filmmaking, the professional way.
b) Regional representation is extremely vital in the Indian context for ours is the most diverse nation in the whole world and our stories serve as a great repository for creating interesting and hopeful films, be them short films, documentaries, theatre plays or feature films.
How does the film portray the idea of “revelation” not just as a religious concept, but as a deeply
personal moment of queer awakening?
Jijo Jessy Kuriakose: As I said the film used the title Revelation after much thought as the title, per se, denotes, in the literary sense, understanding or awakening. To denote this we have used the scene of Johnny , in bare essentials , sitting in a dark space and with melting candles on his shoulders. The metaphor signifies the pain he had to go through to have the awareness/awakening. This part is very personal and sentimental for me and brings me tears..I can’t answer this question in detail!!
What was the significance of using expressionistic storytelling in the film — particularly in how
emotions, memory, and desire are visually represented?
Jijo Jessy Kuriakose: If I am asked to mark my life, based on the present, I would place my past in the form of Memory boxes and the future in the form of Hope boxes. Johnny carried a wooden box in which he used to keep his memories while he was given a virtual reality headset(box) through which he witnessed
Hope. This is one part of expressionistic story telling I used in the film and it’s a way to tell stories while using less dialogues. There are other such examples also in the film which remain as elements to be found out by the audience instead of I explaining about the elements. I also believe in the power of audience interpretation which brings diverse responses and queer readings on a gay/queer themed film
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