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 plot is simple. Hibiki works as a bartender and is a secretly obsessed fundashi (boys who enjoy romantic or sexual relationship between two men), who likes to draw BL, watch anime etc. But at work he pretends to be your regular run-of-the mill guy. While working, he loves to day dream about real life people in front of him in various BL scenarios. When the first two customers arrive, he has funny day dreams about them. Hibiki’s overactive imagination often misconstrues their innocuous interactions as romantic connections. He gets overexcited about his fantasies, often lost in his own world. This continues when his older boss' male friend comes to meet him. When a young bartender joins at work, he even dreams of shipping them with two separate customers, till he feels maybe those two are better with each other.
The humor in this funny outlandish comedy comes mostly from the lead man's hysterical reactions to his own imaginations. He has this relentless enthusiasm and almost every scene is silly and energetic. The jokes may not be the best but the lead's reactions and excitement cover up for everything. He captures the suaveness of a bartender and combines it with the giddiness of a fudanshi. The actor is just too good. The other actors playing his colleague are decent in their. part but the focus is so much on Hibiki and rightly so, that you barely have even time to notice anyone else. Don't expect too much of actual romance happening here, since all the scenarios actually happen in Hibiki's imagination. Despite no plot development, character growth, or meaningful progress; the show still worked as a collective of gag humour, mainly because of the amazing acting by the lead. An interesting thing was also that all his BL scenarios were normally based on the drinks that he would make and the story behind that would also add to the humor.
Those who love silly comedies may respond well to the offbeat humour in Fudanshi Bartender. It parodies BL tropes cheekily with outrageous scenarios, wacky characters, and over-the-top fantasies. I quiet enjoyed it for what it is and if you wanna have a good laugh and watch something silly, I would definitely recommend this. (6.5/10)
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PS : do you think the owner can actually see something with his hair???
And I agree. I am glad it was only 2 episodes. Any longer would have diluted the silliness and fun of the show.