A gay, linguistic professor living in a small orthodox city must deal with the aftermath of a sting operation that puts his sexual orientation in front of the entire nation.
Set in the state of Uttar Pradesh and based on true events, the plot revolves around Dr Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras who taught Marathi at Aligarh Muslim University. He was sacked from his position of Reader and Chair of Modern Indian Languages, on charges of homosexuality. A sting operation was conducted by a TV channel which showed him in an embrace with a rickshaw puller, at his house inside the campus.—mishravikky68
Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code criminalizes sexual activities against the order of nature. This includes homosexual acts. The 2nd July 2009, the Delhi High Court declared Section 377 as unconstitutional and homosexuality was decriminalized.
8th Feb 2010, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. The esteemed and award-winning professor Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras (Manoj Bajpayee) taught Marathi at Aligarh Muslim University. He returns home at night in a Rickshaw. Siras and the Rickshaw puller go up into Siras's apartment.2 TV journalists enter the Prof's house at night and film him having sex with a man. One of the journalists was armed with a stick and the other one had a camera. The whole incident was premeditated.Siras is suspended from the University and the story hits the local papers.
The story is picked by a Delhi based journalist Deepak Sebastian (Rajkummar Rao), who is looking for his big break. Nameeta (Dilnaz Irani) is Deepak's boss. Deepak begs her to assign him to the story and he travels to Aligarh to investigate.Meanwhile in Aligarh, the University is under full protest for the expulsion of Prof Siras. His colleague Professor Sridharan (K.R. Parmeshwar) pressure him to write a letter stating that he is embarrassed for the events of the night in question.Siras reluctantly writes the letter to save his job. He is treated like a social pariah after the expose with even doctors refusing to provide medical treatment to him.Siras is sacked from his position of Reader and Chair of Modern Indian Languages, due to his sexual orientation. The University decides to send him a legal notice to vacate his allocated apartment in 7 days. The electricity connection to his apartment is cut off with immediate effect, despite protests from Siras.
Deepak finds this very disturbing and feels that Siras has been trapped in a Pre-planned sting operation. He tries to speak to Siras, but Siras chases him away. Deepak also befriends Tahir Islam (Sukhesh Arora), who is a professor in the Philosophy department. Tahir says that Aligarh University was the incubator for progressive thought in post-Independence India. But now that revolutionary zeal has been extinguished and the entire University has been politicized.Siras warms up to Deepak, when he comes by again and helps Siras by getting a temporary electrical supply for his neighbors' connection.Siras agrees to speak with Deepak and alleges that he is an outsider, and gay, and yet was the head of the linguistics department at Aligarh University. Hence many people at the University were jealous of him and his success.
Siras says this expose was a deliberate plan to malign his reputation to get him fired. Siras says that In January a colleague had threatened him to remove him from his post, and within a week this incident took place.He describes how 2 unknown people armed with a camera and sticks entered his apartment when Siras was with his male friend. The filmed him having sex and then beat him up with sticks. They were prevented from accessing their clothes.Shortly thereafter 4 of Siras's colleagues entered his apartment. Deepak is aghast that 6 people entered Siras's apartment without permission and the University took no action against them.
Back in Delhi a gay rights activist group Anjali Gopalan (Nutan Surya) & Arvind Narayan (Ishwak Singh) extends its support to Siras to take up his fight in the courts. They are confident of winning due to the recent amendments to article 377 by the Supreme Court.Siras is represented by Advocate Anand Grover (Ashish Vidyarthi) who also fought the article 377 case in the Delhi High Court.Siras vacates his apartment and into a private residence outside the University campus.
Siras decides to take the legal route and the court proceedings start in earnest in March 2010. The prosecution produces the letter written by Siras, that clearly states that Siras has accepted his guilt and is embarrassed by the actions of the night. The colleague who forced Siras to write the letter, refuses to help him out in anyway whatsoever.
Deepak is following the trial with interest and decides to seek out the Rickshaw Walla who was with Siras on the night in question. Deepak believes that the Rickshaw Walla Irfan (Prashant Kumar) was part of the conspiracy to frame Siras, as there were 3 door latches in Siras's apartment and all three were left unlocked that night. Siras says he loves Irfan and trusts him. In court the prosecution is hell bent on proving that Siras was engaged in an amoral and criminal act of gay sex.
Eventually Siras wins the case & the court orders the university to re-instate him. Deepak calls Siras and congratulates him on his victory and promises to celebrate together. The next day Siras' dead body is found in his apartment. The police find traces of poison in his blood but rule out any foul play.A few years later the supreme court upholds article 377 and criminalizes homosexuality again.
