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 how this couple ended up with this collection. The two made it a routine to visit local antique stores after church on Sundays. During one chance encounter, the pair discovered an old photograph of two men in an affectionate pose during a time it wasn’t exactly accepted. This started Nini and Treadwell on a path to finding more images like that. Since then, they’ve amassed a collection of what has become hundreds of vintage pictures of gay couples in love. Between interviews with Nini and Treadwell and montages of their collection, we take an eye-opening trip to the past. Organized by levels of shown affection, we start with the seemingly platonic pictures of men standing together. They sweetly reveal what's written on the back of the photos: "two Sad Sacks 1945," "me and Harvey 1929," and "more than palsies." The film makers try to go deeper in some of the pictures and the story behind it as best as they can, and its moments like this the documentary stands out and shines and begins to attain depth.
The collection is definitely archival and for the history books because I bet you that nothing like this exists. The photographs are well curated, and the film makers peppers each section with quotes about love from gay writers. But strictly as watching a documentary, with even less than an hour of run time; I personally was done watching the photos and quotes. I think I may enjoyed their book 'Loving' more than watching the film. Nonetheless, this is an incredible and an important collection and kudos to the couple Nini and Treadwell for shining of doing something like this. (4/10)
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