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 ...
It's Alejandro's 70th birthday and him and his partner Pedro are throwing a dinner party. What follows is the audience meeting s group of friends and what their relationships are with each other and everyone else. First to arrive is a straight couple who have been close friends. But we soon find out that the wife is extremely unhappy in her very boring wedding while her conservative husband is stuck in his old school ideologies. Next to arrive is a younger man who works with Pedro and his new, superhot boyfriend. At the same time , an older bear couple also arrives. Turns out that one of the guys from the older bear couple had slept earlier wit the new hot guy. The attraction is still there, but over the course of evening, everyone realizes that the older guy is flirting with hot guy. Thankfully no drama happens, because both these individuals eventually tell their partners that they have hooked up in the past. Then we have Pedro/Alejandro's niece and her girlfriend who announce there relationship and there is a small drama around them wanting to have baby. Finally we have their closest friend Germain arrive. Germaine lost his boyfriend 9 years ago and has been in depressions since. When he arrives, he privately confides in Pedro that he is HIV positive, who encourage shim to tell all friends because we are all a family. The dinner continues, chit chat happens, minor drama ensures but nothing that would spoil the birthday. End of night, everyone goes their own way and we viewers are left wondering if we were watching ace actual dinner with friends using a spy camera.
If done well, these kind of films can be actually interesting. A lot depends on what kind of backgrounds the group members have, how interesting they are, what kind of space are the dialogues giving them etc. This film doesn't come close to Ozpetek's films but I would say that this film does stand out on its own. Couples of diverse sexual orientations and spanning generations discuss love, jealousy, open relationships, HIV, death, loneliness and ways of meeting people in the gay world, both then and now. They talk about how humans we have evolved. Older generation remembers meeting guys in bars while younger lot is all about online apps. Each couple is giving enough grants and time for us to know just enough about them so we can see their POV on any discussion that is happening around. All actors do a decent job and it is one of those ensemble films where everyone balances out. No one in particular stands out here. The film is not perfect, but it's sincere and has the heart in right place. Seeing these simple film sometimes makes your time worth it. (6/10)
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