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 documentary starts with tracing the roots of Queercore in Toronto where queer revolutionaries were rebelling against macho punks in a bourgeois gay scene. Using multiple overlapping interviews, the film maker details the movement, the overlapping philosophies with punk, and the nuances of what the scene offered to the queer identity, which was ultimately about the shared goals of fighting the dominant ideology and its structures. In the second half, it shows the growth of the queercore music scene and bands including Tribe 8 and Pansy Division that came up alongside acts that went mainstream.
At some point, it started to feel repetitive because every interviewee had pretty much the same thing to say, but to a novice like me, the documentary still gave me an insight into Queercore (something I had never heard of before) and queer punk, which I had heard of, but had no knowledge or interest before and nether do I think I will. I believe many people were disappointed with no representation of People of color in this doc, especially since they are the ones who are taking Queercore forward, but as I mentioned I would not have any insight into this. Personally, I don't identify with punk scene or music at all. So I had no specific interest as such in watching this documentary. Having said that, the film is an important document capturing the influence of queercore, an underground movement that enjoys life on the fringes, where identifying as an anti-establishment is just as important as sexuality. (3/10)
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