Anthony (Jesuthasan Antonythasan) is entering middle age and he coming in not so healthy, smoking far too much and enjoying a few too many drinks. It’s hurting his health, so much so his doctor tells him he’s got no choice but to cut back. That’s not easy, he being the manager of a popular bar. Not too mention his marriage has stalled and he’s up to his ears in debt. He soon meets Roobha (Amrit Sandhu), a woman he eventually discovers is transgender and looking to save money for an operation in Thailand. An unexpected relationship develops and it’s not long before his wife Pavun (Thenuka Kantharajah) and her brother Sasi (Rajeev Seelan) are right to suspect something is going on with Anthony.
Directed and co-written by Lenin M. Sivam, Roobha looks at first very much like a standard Indian film, at least initially, though is actually shot in Canada, set in Toronto’s Tamil community. It spends much of its first act on Anthony and his fall under the spell of the alluring Roobha. We learn he was once a poet, something he thought long dead within, now resurfaced in her presence. It weakens him, feeling young again. That is until she undresses and well, she’s not the woman he thought she was. How he didn’t suspect … I guess you see what you want to see.
The film shifts to Roobha and her life trying to survive as a woman trapped in a man’s body. It’s not easy, his home life a wreck, forced to find work on the streets. He ends up meeting others who get him a job at a cafe hoping there is a future where he might actually become a woman. Meanwhile, things change with Anthony, and his own journey takes a new path, one that has consequences for everyone.
Interwoven with intricate dance sequences and most especially great symbolism with direction and food, Roobha is a gentle, emotional experience that is less about the exploitation of Roobha’s lot in life than the deep, connective bond he has for a man on the precipice of self discovery and lingering health issues. With cultural mythology painted into the corners of a film heavy on imagery rather than dialogue, it’s a sometime troubling, often hypnotic film that explores the humanity of Anthony and Roobha while extending a bit of interpretation into the meaning of it all.
Well cast and acted, with both Antonythasan and Sandhu natural and believable, the film lacks a bit of the larger dramatic moments perhaps one might expect, the point not being the reveal of Roobha’s sexuality but rather that impact of his relationship with a married man. And sure, late life discovery of one’s one desires is not new either in film. However, it is the touching, even desperate portrayals of these characters and the good work of Sivam behind the camera that bring out the most in Roobha. Recommended.