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 70-something aging gay man Yamazaki hiring a young escort Leo for an S&M session. Leo freaks and waits for him to be back. This is when Yamazaki tells him, he is ok and they hang out. Turns out he is a famous kids picture book writer, who was handsome as a young man and was always in love with himself. With Leo, now for first time he is falling in love with someone else. Leo, on the other hand, has had a boyfriend for two years who is a simple working man and ha son issues with Leo's profession but he wants a committed partnership to make it official, but Leo is not sure. Through his love for Leo, Yamazaki finally comes to terms with and begins to forge the relationships he failed to carve during his youth with his friends and family. He visits an old love of his from his younger days with whom he could not be himself, but seeing him happy with his family doesn't sit well with him. He tries to officially adopt Leo as his partner but Leo makes him see reason. Eventually Leo realizes his true is with his boyfriend and meanwhile Yamazaki realizes he just needs to continue writing books and carve more friendships.
This film tries to delve into both the history and the current situation of stigma against queer peoples and the refusal of Japanese society to see them on equal footing as straight folk through the perspective of both the young and the old. But somehow it fails to really make a point. I understand that the perspective is from the older man' point of view, but Leo, here is a very important character. I would have liked to know more about his side of story. Why is he so much into the older guy (we know he didn't have father, but that can't be reason enough)? Why doesn't he want to commit to his loving boyfriend and also then why not accept Yamasaki's proposal? We never get to see and understand any of that. Yamazaki is also an interesting character. As pointed out by his bar owner gay friend, he is always full of himself and has never cared or loved anyone else and it hasn't change much until Leo appeared. But then what? Did Leo inevitably became an inspiration for him to write more books? What happened to the whole cancer situation, which is completely ignored towards the end. I feel like the director wanted to sy a few things but eventually got caught up in miss-mash of various things to eventually make a relevant statement towards the end. (4.5/10)
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