Aligarh (film)

Aligarh is a 2015 Indian Hindi- language biographical drama film directed by Hansal Mehta and written by Apurva Asrani. It stars Manoj Bajpayee and Rajkummar Rao in the lead roles.

The film had its world premiere at the 20th Busan International Film Festival, receiving a standing ovation. The film was released worldwide on 26 February 2016 to critical acclaim. Bajpayee won critical acclaim and a Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Ramchandra Siras.

Plot
Set in the city of Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, it is the true story of Dr Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras, a professor of Marathi and the head of the Classical Modern Indian Languages Faculty at the famed Aligarh Muslim University. He gets suspended, and grounds of morality are stated as the reason. He also gets sacked from his position of Reader and Chair of Modern Indian Languages. The film starts at the moment when the professor's privacy is invaded by a film crew from a local TV station who forcibly enters his house and films him having sex with a male rickshaw-puller. Siras is forced to leave his housing at the university and is suspended from his job. He is contacted by journalist Deepu Sebastian who is sympathetic to him, and his case is taken up in court. The court rules in his favor and Siras's suspension is revoked, but before he can return to work, he is found dead.

Cast

 * Manoj Bajpayee as Prof. Dr Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras
 * Rajkummar Rao as Journalist Deepu Sebastian
 * Ashish Vidyarthi as Advocate Anand Grover
 * Ishwak Singh as Arvind Narayan
 * Nutan Surya as Anjali Gopalan
 * Divya Unny as Reporter
 * Suman Vaidya as Shadab Qureshi
 * Devyansh Agnihotri (Child Artist)
 * Saptrishi Ghosh as Assistant Lawyer
 * Dilnaz Irani as Nameeta
 * Sukhesh Arora as Tahir Islam
 * Sumit Gulati as Tashi
 * Sachin Parikh as Anuj
 * Balaji Gauri as Nita Grewal
 * K.R.Parmeshwar as Prof. Sridharan
 * Prashant Kumar as Rickshaw wala

Production
Govinda was Hansal Mehta's first choice for the role of Ramchandra Siras, before Manoj Bajpayee was cast. The film was shot in various parts of Uttar Pradesh including Aligarh, Gorakhpur, Agra, Bareilly and Greater Noida (C-Block; Sector – Gamma 1). Wherein Greater Noida a small indoor sequence was shot for 3–4 days by Rajkumar Rao.

Reception
Aligarh had its European première at the 59th BFI London Film Festival on 10 October 2015. The response was generally superlative and the film garnered excellent reviews. Screen International in its review called it a "A subtle, sensitive take on a controversial real-life court case involving the victimization of a gay college professor, Aligarh underscores the growing strength and diversity of Indian independent cinema".

The British Film Institute, in its 'Whats On' review of Aligarh called it "Probably the best film yet on the Indian gay male experience, Hansal Mehta directs a riveting and nuanced tale that is as touching as it is powerful." Aligarh had its India première in Mumbai at the 17th Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival on 30 October 2015. It also has the honour of being the only Indian film to open the festival since its inception. The response was once again overwhelming. Meenakshi Shedde, South Asia Consultant to the Berlin Film Festival and award-winning critic, had this to say about in her Mid-Day review: "Aligarh is masterfully directed: it is that rare film that courageously stands for human rights, including those of homosexuals, yet offers a quiet, distilled perspective." Columnist Aseem Chhabra in his rediff.com review said "Aligarh is a very important film, a milestone in the history of Indian cinema that should start the much-needed conversation about how India treats a visible and yet often ignored minority group."

Gay rights activist and editor of Bombay Dost magazine, Ashok Row Kavi, in his Firstpost.com review called Aligarh "a masterpiece of cinematic skills" and went on to say "What Mehta and writer Apurva Asrani have done is pluck out a commonplace professor in a commonplace university and weave a true life story into a tapestry of terrifying, compelling drama." Indian Express gave 3.5 rating out of 5.