Funny Boy

Arjun is Tamil boy who realises he's gay in a country that criminalises people like him. The movie follows his life from childhood to young manhood, set in Sri Lanka during the ethnic war that resulted in somewhere between 100,000 and 150,000 deaths, and one million Tamils migrating to India, Canada, and other countries. The story is one damn thing after another. The messiness, almost incoherence of the script, mimics this, but also distances us from the characters, who become objects moved around by events that they don't and can't control. Arjun's relationship with Shean doesn't free either of them, it's at best a brief time of mutual joy which can't resist the politics surrounding it. The acting is uniformly very good, helping us Westerners understand a culture so different and yet oddly similar to our own. I get the impression that Mehta had a clear vision of what she wanted, and it wasn't a neatly structured plot tied up with a neat bow of a resolution. I think she also wanted to show how avoiding politics is no defence. The movie was engaging despite itself, the kind that tosses up half-recalled scenes when you least expect them. Worth watching, even if only to get a vague notion of what it's like to live in a different society than your own. I read a number of attacks on this movie, all of which focused on two points, and which all betrayed that the critics had political axes to grind. Pity.

You like it or hate it... the director is an international fame and loved her other works esp Water which was also nominated for Oscar ....this movie is based on a book by Shyam Selvadurai.. it is a coming-of-age story of a boy in 1970s Sri Lanka amidst uprisings, tensions between Tamils and Sinhalese, ethnic riots... although, author stated that it is not really his biography but it does appear as his personal narrative when I read about him.. but disappointed with the middle-of-the-road and 1980s style direction, performances are average too... a multitask watch...

Many aspects of this film are fascinating, like the scenery and location shots. Cannot speak to the 'Tamil' voice/accent issue which is of concern to many. I did read that there has been a lot of voice dubbing which would explain why, at times, the spoken English(unsubtitled) is difficult to understand. The meat market scene is presented without appropriate context. I found the scenes where the main character was jumped back and forth in age to be annoying rather that developmental. However, the film does seem to capture well the trauma of being caught up in ethnic/religious disputes.

I plead ignorance to what happened in Sri Lanka, prior to watching this movie. I understand if people are disappointed if it wasn't Tamil people playing the parts. But I'm SO glad I ignored 95% of the reviews on here. This is a good movie. People are rating it so poorly because of politics (as I say, they may have a point but that's not *my* point).

I'm confident the majority of 1 star reviews are written by a few people with multiple accounts. It's a shame, as if I had listened to them - and avoided the movie, I wouldn't have learned what happened. I am now (because of this movie) more aware and have since read up on what happened. That wouldn't have happened without this movie.

But anyway! I was gutted when this ended, and it made me feel plenty of emotions. I got angry, I got upset when I related to the little gay boy so much, I laughed at the brazenness of the sparring kids, and I mourned what happened between the two people.

If like me you're looking for a movie that will make you feel and make you think - I'd definitely recommend Funny Boy.

I want to deal with one of the criticisms of the film right away. I do not speak any of the languages of the sub continent at all and wouldn't recognise the difference between Sinhalese or Tamil to save my life. Therefore the poor-quality spoken dialogue from the non-Tamil actors playing members of that ethnic group was something I obviously never picked up on. OK, I'd be furious if I was watching a German film and, say, Swedish people were speaking poor German and pretending to be that nationality. But as I was in no position to pick up on this here, it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the film.

I always enjoy films that combine personal dramas and stories with sweeping political and societal events. Here we had them all in spades. Family dynamics, prejudices in both the domestic sphere and the national arena, differing viewpoints on how to deal with inter-community strife.

Within a country whose idyllic existence is slowly being rent apart by ethnic tensions, a wealthy family lives these problems in microcosm. The plot outline on IMDB contains many spoilers but I am not going to be so crass. The film concentrates on two periods, first of all in 1974 when Arjie is a child interested in dressing up as a girl with a protective auntie encouraging him and his parents attempting to get him to "man up". We see the prejudices that occurred even then between Sinhalese and Tamils. And Aunty Radha forced to depart for Canada because of them.

Then we follow Arjie in his teenage years when prejudice is turning into hatred between communities. He is caught up in this in both his love life and with his family whose patriarch wrongly thought their position in society would protect them.

It's a part of history I knew about, but not in detail. I have looked it up since and can see that, although there is not a clear political context in the film, the major issues and events seem to be true. I was mesmerised throughout and fascinated by both the wider and the personal stories. I'm so glad I saw this film.