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 starts with a gay orgy, where we meet our man Santiago who has gone there for some connection but doesn't find it. He comes back home next day to his angry teenage daughter Laila. They have a playful but love hate relationship. She is mad because he didn't let her go to party and she gets back saying to him that the best thing in his life was his ex Luis but he let him go too. He suddenly decides to show up at Luis's house with his mother and daughter hoping to rekindle his relationship with Luis but instead creates. Ruckus and drama. We are not clearly told what went wrong but it seems the breakup had something to do with Santiago. This makes Laila very mad and she moves in with her boyfriend making the father very restless. Laila is the only one person he truly loves. Back in town Santiago is still depressed hoping to find peace in his mind. The daughter comes back home asking to go to Brazil to meet her estranged mother. Santiago agrees and goes with her. But drama follows both of them everywhere. He meets a gay coupe there and has an interesting time with them but just when he thinks he needs more they ask him to leave. Eventually a dejected Santiago is back home in Buenos Aires and he takes the difficult decision of agreeing to let go her daughter to Canada for further studies. He will be miserable and lonely and he knows it but he needs to do the right thing.
I have very mixed feelings about the film. The continued downward spiral of our protagonist hits hard (and to an extent even to some personal level), causing as much frustration and anger as it is empathy but it does start to get repetitive after a while. You can feel his loneliness and want fo love but you can also see he cannot help but mess things up. Is he clingy or indifferent or a combination in different circumstances, we don't know; but he has more issues than a normal person. Like his ex-wife says, he hasn't found peace in his mind. The father-daughter relationship presented in this film seems to me to be the most interesting of the plot, it presents everyday situations in a realistic way, and that mixture between love and anger, between care and abandonment, which arises from Santiago's self-destructive nature. The film has plenty of nudity and realism to sometimes make you even uncomfortable with the self destructive nature of our man, but we are all trying to understand each other all the time. In this case, our man Santiago has all kinds of issues and he will need serious help to live through those. I understand that every time things have to spelled out for audiences, because whatever the reason maybe, the focus here is on the mental health of Santiago which needs serious help. The film is not an easy watch and is not for everyone but it has a soul and something that's normally not addressed in gay films, loneliness and craving fo love especially when you go into your 40s. Watch it but be patient. (5.5/10)
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