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 film moves at a very fast pace. We see his earlier days in theatre, how he manages to befriend a few people dreaming of making films. He moves from different actors, characters and people while terrorizing everyone on the sets to make a movie the way he wanted it to look. We see how he was openly gay, sexually very promiscuous, a man who wanted to defy all norms of film making and a drug addict. You know that the film is not going to end well for a person with al these traits. With a life dedicated to cinema, churning out three to five films per year, a devout cinephile, promiscuous homosexual, and conflicted Marxist, his live-fast-die-young lifestyle was the stuff of a rock star, not a director.
Sadly the film never goes into the psyche of the person that Ould make you either appreciate him or hate him or even just understand better. You watch this film and you feel like you are watching a self absorbed guy who yells at everyone, has sex all around, does a lot of coke and somewhere in between finds time to make 3-5 films a year. How was he funding these films, where were the story ideas coming from, why were the actors dying to work for him when clearly his reputation was never the best; is never touched upon. Interestingly, this biography itself is shot in a mix of theatre, half-in, half-out experiments kind of film; which is how apparently all of Fassbinder films used to be like. The sets and location are bare minimum with complete focus on just the actors. We also get to see the few relationships that he was in with other guys. But as I said, never anything is explored in details. The film is mainly interested in what a monumental jerk Fassbinder could be, treating theater companies, film crews, actors, producers, lovers, and family members like obstacles, raw material, or garbage, depending. This is not my kind of cinema unfortunately. (2.5/10)
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