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 ...
Set in rural province of Philippines, we meet a young gay couple who are making ends meet. They have lost their jobs and with minimum savings, they moved to countryside while covid cases everywhere are rising. They both take good care of each other cooking, cleaning etc while also hoping that the virus doesn't catch them. Apparently Dandansoy is a song by some singer which happens to be a favorite of one of the boys. One day this guys starts to feel covid symptoms. It starts with loss of taste and smell, followed by cough. As best as the other person tries to care for him and nurture him, his health continues to take to the worst and eventually he stops fighting and dies, leaving behind the lover in grief and crying, thus reminding us how many lives and loved ones were lost during the pandemic.
This scene of death, of the lonely burial, of the pain of the companion experiencing all this suffering without any support, hurts even more when I stop to think that it must have really happened thousands of times, in several places around the world, showing that in some places and for the most humble population the pandemic was really much more cruel. The series focused on those marginalized section where basics lack electricity, food, news, sanitation, medical help was really hard to come by. So as much as love helps them both, cooking for one another etc, when crisis comes, reality hits hard. Yes, the story is sad and production quality is likely basic at best, the series is saved by some good performances by its two leads given how little scope they had to play with. They do their best. The message might have been better served as a short story, but I do understand that those were the days when BL series from every corner of Asia were being thrown around since people were starving for content. The title was a bit confusing and it would have benefice to understand the real significance of that. May be it's a cultural nuance that somehow I missed. (5/10)
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