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 ...
Q and Amaris are a gay black couple. Q is 35, a lawyer, looking to become a partner and who is a meticulous and practically anal planner. However, Amari is feeling aimless and without purpose, frustrated that he doesn't know what he wants to do with his life. Amari's 30th birthday has him feeling old and wanting to reevaluate things. A blast incident forces them to get virtually locked in their apartment on the day of Amaris 30th birthday forcing them both to confront their true feelings for one another. They spend time together till Q throws a bomb and tells Amaris that he cheated on him on their trip in Mexico and that he is positive. Shocked Amaris, locks himself up; but the duo continue to converse. They remember the good old days when they met and how the main bond between them was they were e both raised by their grandma (hence the title). But by the end, Amaris decides he needs a break and reevaluate his life.
The difficulty of crafting a film like this is finding ways to make it visually interesting or make the dialogue as compelling as possible. When you have a film that's basically two characters trapped in one location with nothing but their words to sustain the piece, it becomes crucial that the dialogue is enough to keep one engaged. The characters sound more like they're reciting scripted dialogue than engaging in believable conversation. No one talks like these people do in real life, it all feels very rehearsed. As the two men open up about their relationship, they discuss old memories and it soon becomes clear that they haven’t had the same experience in the relationship. Warning signs have been missed or ignored, unhappiness has been suppressed in the hope things will improve and vitally the two men have been unable to tell each other what they need. The stuff that was being addressed is usually messy and more often than not involves some drama, raising of voice etc, but none of this happens here. Surely, we don't wanna see over the top histrionics making the film a soap opera; but in contrast, here it is way too sanitized, glossy and polite. In fact, I kept wondering how is this couple even together. They are so mechanical in everything they did or said. Their chemistry is lacking, which does make the inevitable fallout easier to accept. As actors, the two leads are good looking and strictly average. It's good to see gay black men being represented more in American cinema, but how I wished someone made something good with it, not this run-of-mill average content. And as an audience, if I do not connect with my characters and don't much care about what's happening in their life, I think the film has already lost the purpose. (4/10)
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