This Hindi movie is a pretty straightforward slice-of-life story that tries to give a modern look at what it's like to be a single, professional gay man. It dives into how he understands who he is, the chances he missed out on, and the personal choices he’s made along the way. The director used three parallel timelines to tell the story, which honestly didn't make much sense to me. While the core idea was actually pretty interesting, I really feel like this would have worked way better as a short film considering the point it was trying to make. Still, it wasn't a bad watch. The plot centers on Rachit, a city professional, and his friend Shikhar as they hang out for an evening. Rachit is a polished, urban guy, while Shikhar has more of a "small-town" rustic vibe, and you can really see the contrast between them when they talk. As the night goes on, Rachit starts thinking back to some old memories from a long time ago. He remembers being an intern after college in ...
The plot is simple yet complicated. A young gay man named Josef goes over to the apartment of an older man named John for a date night. After taking a pill in John's bedroom, they both start dancing and soon Josef starts to find reality slipping. Next thing you know is John falls down and Josef is arrested for allegedly murdering John. Now he's forced to deal with two boxer-clad police detectives, a mask-wearing public defender, and all kinds of odd figures who come in and out of the interrogation room, trying to extract information about him and decide whether or not he'll be charged for murder. But is this really happening or is this all after effects of this experimental drug that he took?
It feels like the director was going for an experimental cinematic vibe, but its strangeness seems even more arbitrary than it needs to be, preventing us from being emotionally invested in the proceedings. We are told absolutely nothing about either Josef or John to either empathize or have an opinion. You're forced to construct your own idea of who the character is solely through the dialogue-heavy scenes, but a lot of it is merely fed to the viewer instead of being shown. There is a scene in middle of interrogation where Josef is seen waking up in bed next to John, suggesting that the freakish events may be a nightmare or perhaps a hallucination induced by the drug he took. But then nothing comes out of that scene. The film is not bad, it's an interesting take but sadly a one that goes nowhere in particular. An attempt to show a gay man of color dealing with voyeurism, police brutality, privilege and prejudice but without real depth or complexity. Even the ending wasn't super clear, since he comes out of interrogation room , back to John's apartment. We just don't know everything that is happening is real or imaginary. Maybe neither or maybe both. (5/10)
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