‘Baapya’ Review: Sparks a commendable conversation on gender dysphoria and leaves it at that

We’re halfway through the 2020s and much of India still lives and dies by societal taboos and diktats. This is even more apparent in small towns and villages, where societal and financial hierarchy is set in stone for generations together. In the era of instant information dissemination, there are still pockets in this country that pick and choose archaic rules and ignorance by convenience.

Anil Borkar (Girish Kulkarni) is a fisherman by trade, so it’s quite uncharacteristic to see him throw a rainbow-colored one back in during a trawling session. He’s a simple man and his reason for doing so won't surprise you as the film wears on. His son Sanju (Aryan Mengji) is more a product of this generation, eternally online and yet, disconnected from everything. Borkar has been divorced for 10 years and has since happily remarried.

Anil’s friend, an advocate named Shinde (Shrikant Yadav) comes to him with a deal to sell off a plot of land, but one that will require Shailaja (Rajshri Deshpande), the wife he divorced to come down to Dapoli to sign off on the agreement. After some consternation and agreeing to her sole condition: meeting her estranged son, Borkar shows up only to be taken unawares when Shailesh and not Shailaja shows up and claims to be his ex-wife.

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The rest of the film involves the family and everyone around them coming to terms with the new reality and what it means going forward, for everyone concerned.

Gender dysphoria doesn’t get talked about as often as it should in popular media and that’s the sad fact of the matter. ‘Baapya’ deviates from the accepted narrative – no happy endings – by giving Shailaja/Shailesh one. Shailaja has completed her medical studies, undergone gender-reaffirming surgery, has transitioned to being Dr Shailesh and is a surgeon of note in Mumbai, by the time the viewer meets him.

Through flashbacks, Sameer Tewari introduces you to the tomboyish Shailaja and her friendship with Anil over the years, her consistent refusal of his advances and eventual proposal for marriage and the reasons for their estrangement thereof.

Unerringly, though, her deep dissonance with regard to her gender identity, stays firmly in place. Makes you wonder about Anil aka Anya’s consistent obliviousness to her dysphoria. 

While Rajshri’s Shailaja/Shailesh becomes the anchor that grounds this film’s subject matter, it is inevitably the very likeable Anil, played by Girish Kulkarni, who you empathize with right from the time you’re introduced to him. Sure, he’s not the perfect husband or the perfect father, but he’s better than most. He’s shown to be a simple man who doesn’t understand much more than he needs to, but he’s emotionally intelligent when he has to be. Rajshri’s character, on the other hand, plays out as selfish, depressed and emotionally unavailable. Intentional or not, it remains a bit unresolved until much later in the film.

Anya’s switch from denial to acceptance over a drunken night out with Shailya, seems sudden and a little too convenient even if their heart-to-heart plays out as a genuine one. Another high point is the emotional scene between Shailesh and the grandmother which will bring you to tears.

Supporting characters like Anya’s second wife, Vishakha (Devika Daftardar), and his mother-in-law (played by Varsha Dandale) are striking in their roles but play it a little on the nose. Aryan Mengji’s Sanju comes off as quite self-centred and leaves you with the most unanswered questions.

Much of the topics the film raises as a matter of discourse remains on surface level, barely pushing through for a more nuanced understanding of gender identity and dysphoria. It’s a start and a commendable one at that, but unfulfilling in some aspects.

‘Baapya’ fathers a conversation that deserves more talking about, but drowns it in a sea of sentiment and waves of societal and personal insecurities.