Welcome Valentine (2017)

Overview

The film explores the ideas of love, politics and Hindu religion in contemporary Ahmedabad, Gujarat through a priest who has been marrying off eloping couples in a Hanuman Temple. Not just eloping couples but also people from the LGBT community. Hirabhai Juguji (the priest) approaches love, marriage, politics and religion not just with extreme simplicity, but also extreme depth. His beliefs are very unusual compared to the orthodox and conservative beliefs priests are known to have in India and one is left wondering about one’s own convictions. It is at his temple that the very complex ideas of love, religion and politics criss cross and contrast and turn into something wonderful.

Keywords