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 ...
Gay men are being murdered ruthlessly and investigative journalist is trying to figure out the case. He has a beautiful wife who is an air hostess and his best friend is a magistrate who keeps asking him to help police with investigation rather than working on his own. He starts cursing in search of serial killer with his camera woman trying to get footage, but murders keep happening and somehow Marco is always near or have met the men who keep getting killed. One day he meets an enigmatic male hustler Andre, Marco questions his sexuality. The two men do it, even though Marco pretends otherwise be asleep. Soon Marco starts to use information provided by Andre to find the killer but the more he gets into the investigation, the deeper he himself keeps becoming the prime suspect. Meanwhile his wife thinks her husband is having an affair. Finally when the identity of the killer is revealed, it does come as a surprise but I also wasn't surprised because by this point we all have started to assume patterns of such murder thrillers.
Marco uses an internet chat room for hook-ups which seems way ahead of its time for 1993 and the gay world depicted is true-to-life in other ways, too -the pick up parks, porno theaters, discos, and gyms are all typical trysting places and Marco meets a wide variety of gay men (mostly married) ranging from a restroom pervert to a closeted senator, all of whom are handsome and none of whom are effeminate in the slightest. Despite all this, the film struggles to hold my attention. The characters were just not charming enough, but for such roles, you need a charming actor. Sadly Marco didnt fit the bill. Although I should say that Andre did have the hot mystery look. The wife just barely said anything, regularly skipping work to follow her husband around and then random sex scenes would show up. The lack of focus on sleaze in favor of plot creates serious pacing issues but there are some elements in here which almost makes it worth watching alone for. So we get the horniest, creepiest and most enthusiastic peeping tom in cinema history plus the most obvious hidden camera in cinema history as well. And the ending with wife showing up in short hair waiting for her husband to pick her up is even more messed up. Is Marco now gay or what and what is the wife trying to prove? Even for its time, this film was weakly acted, poorly shot and features an underwhelming score. The film could’ve been so much more if they had actually focused on the queer themes and made it more polished. (3.5/10)
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