Parimal is born a boy, but there has always been another identity hidden within Parimal's male physical appearance. The only way out for him is to escape from his parents, his family, and his neighborhood in search of a world that did not seem so unidentifiable.
In his quest, Parimal reaches a new city, Kolkata where he is welcomed by a transgender shelter. And Parimal soon becomes Puti. There, he meets Madhu and falls in love with him. As Madhu discovers more about Puti's physicality, he wonders how he could feel attracted to a woman who has a male body? Were these things even possible in reality? Will their love survive the guillotine of societal barriers?
The film is a document that frames this experience of an invisible community, rarely portrayed in the arena of Indian mainstream cinema. The fabric of Ganguly's film moves beyond the binaries of a linear and complex narrative and instead brings forth a breathtaking ruthlessness that mirrors the hidden lives and traumas of the Transgender/ Hijra/ Intersex/ gender non-conforming communities.
The film embodies the visceral experience of these communities battling centuries of prejudice and taboo. The community's lived realities of being caught between questions of vice and virtue, desire and rejection sustains the film's body narrative - rather precariously - avoiding a moral position - yet examining the very contours that makes taking these positions complicated.
In a society that largely considers trans bodies as dustbins to dump its traumas and miscarriages of justice, the film signals a language of change that can be used to build a narrative of resistance.
It is inherent in the power of cinema to precipitate universal conversations - which Kaushik Ganguly's film does.
At the 65th National Film Awards the film won four Awards including, Special Jury Award (Feature Film) and National Film Award for Best Actor for Riddhi Sen.
