The most unique and likeable aspect of this docu-series on the members of the voiceless transgender community is that it gives them a voice: transgenders, male and female, speak to the camera directly and we never hear any intervening voice.
Thankfully!
This device of letting the voiceless have an uninterrupted say is what gives a compelling twist to In Transit.
Enough of trying to “understand” the marginalized communities. That empathy which they sought at one time has now been neutralized to, ‘Can we just be left alone, please?’
Producers Reema Kagti and Zoya Akhtar and director Ayesha Sood bring forward voices from the trans comedy which are not patently broadcast as representational. The marginalized communities have their own hierarchy in the media. In In Transit, these are not your oft-heard over-exposed transgender voices. These are the quieter voices which need to be heard. They don’t shout. We listen.
Another plus to this journey into the grey world of the gender-challenged is the lack of self-pity. There are no cry babies here, only gutsy men and women determined to lead lives as the opposite sex… and to hell with sex!
Not too many of these spirited men, women and women-men and men-women seem to care about normalization, You see, it’s not about the body, at least not in the carnal sense. It’s about companionship and empathy. It is also about not feeling sorry for oneself, even when the odds are stacked against the individual.
I especially liked trans-man, who spoke about how he convinced his parents to not marry him off to a man and made telling use of patriarchal illustrations to convince them.
“Patriarchy kabhi toh kaam aaye,” he quipped with a twinkle in his eye.
Not that it is all fun and games. Anecdotes about bullying, assault, discrimination and desertion do crop up in this map of the conflicted human’s heart. But largely the people around these gender-ambivalent souls are kind.
There are some stretches that get ruminative and heartbroken. But on the whole, this is a series that celebrates otherhood without tears. The gender-conflicted interviewees are surprisingly clear-headed about the inner and outer chaos which they have embraced. At least one of the trans-women (Madhuri) gets a happy ending when her straight boyfriend marries her.
In Transit gives us hope that there would be more such safe landings for the turbulent community.
