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Neither male nor female, they inhabit a twilight world that has its own ways. Social pariahs, they are scorned and ridiculed by civilised society. Yet they are the first to storm a house with their lusty celebratory singing and dancing when a baby is born. If you are simultaneously fascinated and repelled by them, it's not your fault.
For, the in-between world of eunuchs, or 'hijras' as they are called in India, is cluttered with deadly clichés. So tread gently when you see "No Man's Land". The documentary, directed by Prajna Khanna and Himali Kapil, demolishes some pet stereotypes about these grossly misunderstood and misrepresented 'in-between' people. It also unravels their intricate psychology, testing the limits of human understanding as it were.
Facts are sometimes stranger than fiction. Consider this shocking disclosure: a large section of the eunuchs comprise men who choose to get themselves castrated. This perhaps explains why despite not many instances of sexual ambiguity (as in the case of children born with deformed genitalia), there are at least one million eunuchs in India and their number is steadily growing. The short film intertwines stories of three fascinating gender-challenged humans to show their rich repertoire of emotions, their agonies and ecstasies, in an attempt to break through distorting stereotypes.
Pammi, a married man, abandons his family to live out his overpowering desire to be a woman. He dresses in feminine clothes and goes to the extent of giving up everything to live with eunuchs. Kajal, born as Sharat Makhija, is consumed by the thought of being a woman trapped inside a man's body. All she wants is to be a woman - "to be a woman is beautiful". This is her idea of fulfilment.
Born to a wealthy family, this gritty soul has the means to make this consuming obsession of hers a reality. Finally, she manages to persuade a famous Delhi-based plastic surgeon to perform sex change surgery on her.
Sonia, born technically a man, but in feelings and sensibility a woman, will do anything to realise her dream, including wait on the "god-like plastic surgeon" for days on end. The film ends with Sonia soulfully intoning her song of longing, celebrating the pleasures of being a woman.
Diligently researched, painstakingly detailed, the documentary takes us another step closer to understanding these all-too-human social outcastes who are often reviled and cruelly caricatured by the ignorant. For those blinded by such stereotypes, it's an eye-opener to see shots of eunuchs praying at Sufi shrines.
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