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 ...
Tana and Eros are a married couple. He runs a small street-front shop. She’s an opera singer struggling to stay engaged in her art. They have a good relationship. But unaware to Eros, Tana starts to frequent a gay bathhouse Copa 181. which starts to become his happy place. That's where we meet a few other characters primarily being transgender Kika who is falling in love with straight and married hustler Leo, who hustles in the gay sauna. We do see a couple of other characters whose scenes just come and go. eros harbors a dream of singing other kinds of songs as well and not just opera. When she eventually gets an opportunity to song at Copa 181, her husband's secret comes out. The film ends with them having a mature conversation around if they are happy or not.
The problem with this film is that it tries to do too much without putting enough focus on certain storylines for them to hold any emotional weight. Even though Eros and Tana are the main characters, we hardly get to know about their marriage and relationship. Why are they unhappy, why does Tana want to move to Japan, why does Eros' father not talk to her etc. Also we see a wee bit of Kika and Leo's character but it is never gone deeper which eventually frustrated me. Eventually, what we do get is how the inner workings of a gay sauna happen, how the make hormones rage inside, the hustling culture and how saunas serve as escape for many men. Visually the film is taught and nice but remains unfocused during the more tender moments between the characters. It just brushes on the surface. There was a lot of potential here from a story perspective which sadly was missed.
Nevertheless, this film is an empathetic tale about love, life, and relationships that doesn’t beat you over the head with any particular message. (5/10)
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