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 80s, we meet Antonio (a hunk straight out of a leather bar) an isolated farmer who lives a quite mundane life. Fate makes him meet Marcelo, an injured motorbike driver, whom he nurses back to health. A worried affair starts between the two and they are having long slow-mo sex acts shown explicitly but also falling in love with each other with a lingering question of whether Marcelo will suddenly up and leave? But Antonio’s homophobic dad has sent a disruptor to his farm and things take a tragic turn. Antonio packs up the farm and drowns himself with a dead (?) Marcelo. The movie suddenly turns gears and we are now in an alternate universe? Or a dream? Or a nightmare? We jump to a much older Antonio, a successful artist living a huge house in the city. Marcelo has suddenly disappeared, walked away without telling and it seems that Antonio is relived he is gone. A few days later, Antonio gives away their dog to random gay couple and starts having an affair with his assistant, all the while the housekeeper wondering what happened? The film becomes thriller but just abruptly ends.
Where did Marcelo go? Why did he leave? Is he alive? Dead? Living his best life in São Paulo? But then, the movie gets distracted because it’s more interested in showing Antonio having sex with his personal assistant and then running off to the woods to have group sex with men who mysteriously pop out of nowhere like horny forest spirits. This was the most bizarre ending honestly. It is a shame because when the film started off, I had huge hopes. Despite most of the scenes in the film being almost silent, there was a visual appeal to it all. In fact I thought the first few sex scenes were both emotionally and sensually charged, but the nude scene kept coming. The erotically-charged, somewhat hardcore sex scenes and oodles of nudity will certainly attract the gay crowd, but everyone would leave frustrated because of so many open ended questions. It is a shame because the artistic poetic first half wasn't bad at all. It was visually stunning and watching these two absolutely gorgeous men in their full glory was a feast for the sore eyes. Having seen the whole thing now, it feels like this is another skin flick that prides itself on being artistic, not porn, because it has tragedy and angst to accompany the nudity and sex. A beautiful story that had potential, that was ruined by the makers ambitious artistic aspirations. (4/10)
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