‘Baapya’ review: A gender bender about a man who loved a woman who was always a man
· Scroll
Shailya left the pretty village in the Konkan as Shailaja. Shailya has returned as Shailesh. Gender-affirming surgery has given Shailya (Rajshri Deshpande) the peace that he never felt in his previous body. But Shailya’s arrival is a tsunami that has landed without a warning.
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Nobody knows what to make of the revenant, least of all his ex-husband Anya (Girish Kulkarni). Anya, a fisherman, can scarcely believe that the man with the light moustache and deep voice used to be the woman – a tomboy, but indubitably a woman – whom he loved and married.
Their son Sanjya (Aaryan Menghji) is repulsed. Anya’s second wife Vishakha (Devika Daftardar) frets about Anya’s lingering feelings for Shailya. The town gleefully treats it all like a reality show.
Sameer Tewari’s Baapya explores transition and transformation, both of the body and attitudes. The Marathi movie, which is out in cinemas with English subtitles, is based on an idea by Priti Nair. It is written by Tewari and Vikrant Katkar, with inputs by Nair and a host of other writers.
Baapya positions itself as the introductory chapter in a study about gender identity. Unlike Rohan Kanawade’s Sabar Bonda (2025), which does not feel the need to explain a gay romance in a village, Baapya treats its characters –...