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 ...
February, 1983. Detectives are called to a residential address in the London suburbs following reports that the drains have been clogged by human remains. One of the property’s residents, Jordan March is called in for questioning. Slowly he accounts for how he lured young gay man, mostly homeless and jobless, got them into his apartment and eventually kill them. He would bury them under his floorboards and take them out and sometimes sleep with them or just sit with them till the bodies get too smelly.
The film is shot in a very documentary like style without any high production thrills. In fact the photography is often grainy and dim, but it does capture the sleazier late eighties London night life with a raw beauty. The film looks much older than it really is and I am told that this was done on purpose (I wonder why since personally for me , that doesn't work). One thing that's missing here is any overt reflection on the homophobia prevalent at the time. We encounter it only through its secondary effects: the number of young queer men drifting through life with no-one to look out for them. The interrogating officer goes from plain mad to somber to arrogant, which I presume was the situation of the detectives those days in dealing with a criminal like this man. Also we do see trippy flashbacks to Jordan’s childhood where he witnessed the death of his grandfather, presumably triggering his various morbid fascinations that we never really get any background on. Something seemed to be missing in the film, since it never really went deep into the why's and psyche of the characters. Interestingly, even the victims were not shown as likable characters for some off reason.
I would recommend to give this one a miss and watch Des instead. Brilliant acting with a detailed account of exactly what happened, this experimental film instead leaves a lot to be desired. (3/10)
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