ABSTRACT
In the feature film Hera Pheri (The Con Job, 2000), Raju (Akshay Kumar), an underpaid worker in a small laundry, dreams of a lavish and exotic lifestyle. The dream, articulated through a song, shows him driving expensive cars, cavorting with women, and visiting exotic locales. In this transnational landscape he spots a row of bikini-clad women lying on the beach and sunning their backs. An excited Raju leaps into the air, lands next to them, and propositions them through song. As the women respond by turning their faces toward him, they turn out to be bikini-clad men in blond wigs! A surprised and amused Raju jumps into the sea, and beckons them to follow. As he runs on, the men also jump into the sea and chase him. This brief but determined queer disruption is emblematic of queer emergence in the transnationalized mediascape of popular culture in the last decade. 1
