Evening Shadows: Indian LGBT+ movie on Netflix receives high praise
Evening Shadows/Solaris Pictures
The Indian LGBT+ film Evening Shadows is now available to stream on Netflix, and people are already loving it.
The LGBT+ movie tells the story of a religious mother who struggles with her own values and beliefs after her son comes out as gay, and subscribers were quick to praise film shortly after its Netflix release.
One comment on Twitter read: “just finished watching #EveningShadows on @NetflixIndia WAH WAH WAH! Dil khush kar diya! @MonaAmbegaonkar, Devansh, you both were outstanding! @sridharrangayan Thank you for making this beautiful movie..This is definitely the kind of cinema our country needs.. :)”
Evening Shadows is winning fans. (Solaris Pictures)
And another Twitter user said “#EveningShadows is a lovely film. Please catch it on Netflix.”
Director Sridhar Rangayan crowd-funded much of the finances for Evening Shadows, and the film enjoyed a successful festival run in 2018 where it picked up 16 awards, according to Gay Star News.
“Evening Shadows has been touching hearts and creating a very important bridge between LGBT+ communities and their families across the world.”
— Evening Shadows director, Sridhar Rangayan
When discussing the film’s international impact, Rangayan said: “Evening Shadows has been touching hearts and creating a very important bridge between LGBT+ communities and their families across the world.
“We are happy to continue not only its film festival run, but also continue to explore its exhibition at mainstream platforms.”
Evening Shadows also became the first LGBT+ film to be released in cinemas following the decriminalisation of gay sex in India, after lawmakers ruled that the ban was unconstitutional.
The LGBT+ community take part in Ahmedabad Queer Pride 2019. (Sam Panthaky/Getty)
Rangayan has been an activist of the LGBT+ movement throughout his career.
Speaking about his experience as a gay in cinema man, he said: “I started my journey of working with the community and I came out much later as a gay man; I was 28. It was really complicated in 1990. But since that time I have been working with the community.”
The director has also discussed the importance of considering LGBT+ people as individuals. He said, “I think it is important to see LGBTQ people as people.”
“They have the same emotions. They go to work. They go to a cafe to have coffee. It’s not that they are always having sex. I think these stories need to come out,” Rangayan said, according to Cinestaan.
Evening Shadows stars Mona Ambegaonkar, Ananth Mahadevan, Devansh Doshi and Arpit Chaudhary, and includes the song “Surmaee Shaam,” which was composed and sung by musician Shubha Mudgal.
