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 ...
14 year old Axel comes from a broken home with a substance-abusing mom and an abusive stepfather. Rather than go to school, Alex hangs out with his friends in the center of town and cruises a gay bar to try and find johns and make some money. Axel mostly appears quite assertive in his behavior, he is smart-mouthed, sometimes violent and sports a giant Elvis-like hairstyle. Things change when he meets an older guy, who is unhappily married, has a son and is likely hiding his sexuality. Their affair starts off as a blackmail event but slowly the relationship evolves. All this while Axel using his place to have sex with his girlfriend, who is also sleeping with his best friend. There are like 10 other sub plots about the man's wife having an affair, weird neighbors, everyone talking about sex and porn as if it is the most natural thing. Anyway at some point when cops get a wind of what's happening, they come to question this older man, who eventually empties his bank balance, goes on a long drive with the kid Axel, but eventually lets him go and tries to attempt suicide but fails. Back home, Axel's shenanigans finding tricks and selling his body continue.
There is no concrete plot and the quality of acting is negligible. The film jumped around too much in tone and couldn't stay focused on any single plot line. The film focuses on the dire situation of street kids and how they use their bodies to get through life. If the film stayed there and kept its focus, it would hav been fine, but the makers keep jumping from one plot to another making a chain of sorts while doing no justice to either of those things. Some scene make sense, like when the old man has had enough hiding his sexuality, he wants to eventually break free and doesn't care for materialistic things. He gives all his money to Axel so that he can live his life, but sadly the same cannot be said about Axel. His behavior is too erratic most times and unpredictable, to get a real feel of what this character is feeling inside. What this film needed was some sort of emotional connect between these two main characters and focus on their story. That would hav been more impactful rather than plethora of these subplots. (3.5/10)
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