I've always had kind of a love hate relationship with Chinese historical BLs. Some are genuinely excellent, but then there are others that cram in so much plot that keeping track of all the layers of betrayal and scheming gets exhausting, and I end up checking out mentally. Part of the issue is also just how much content is out there in this space, so something really has to stand out to keep me hooked. In this case, the production value is genuinely impressive, top tier stuff, but story wise, I just couldn't bring myself to actually care about these characters. There's a ton of political scheming and backstage manipulation running throughout. Somewhere in the middle of all that chaos, a hostage ends up falling for his own Prince Charming. The show runs eight episodes, each around 50 to 60 minutes long. After spending three years guarding the border, Fifth Prince Yin Qi gets called back to the capital because of a secret letter, only to end up walking straight into a deadly...
The film starts with final arguments being given by the two lawyers in front of the bench of supreme court judges. To support the argument, we are shown a bit of LGBT history, starting with Arif Jafar, the first man to be charged with Section 377 in 2001. Although an AIDS activist, he is taken to jail and gets sentenced for few years. We get to see his ordeals there. Next we see stories of some of the other individuals, who are primary in the petition that gets filed in Supreme Court. We meet Pallav, a teenager coming to terms with his sexuality but being rejected by his family reaches out to counselors. Shalmali is lesbian and even though her mother is psychologist, she struggles to come to terms with her daughter's sexuality. Rounding them off is a rick guy Keshav (apparently based on a real character), who is pushed to fight for this discrimination after the Orlando gay club shootings. The film ends with the historic judgement form the supreme court.
This film needs to be told and people need to be made aware of what happened but sadly the film overall is a huge letdown and disappointment. The story is half-baked, the direction is shoddy, characters are one-dimensional lacking depth. The film barely touches upon the arduous and difficult task the actual real life petitioners took to bring justice to the country's LGBT community. The lesbian story seems forced and so does Pallav's story. Keshav's character is never really clarified on who he is and how exactly did he lead this whole petition and drove it. All of these petitioners just sit in silence and we never actually get to hear their voice. Acting, I would say is below average from most people making them sometimes look caricaturist (including stalwarts like Tanvi Azmi). This film seems to have been made in rush, so as to no one beats them to make something similar before these folks. As I said before, its an amateur attempt but brave at the same time, because this story needs to be told.
The five petitioners, who actually took this case up to the Supreme Court in real life in 2018 and landed a historic verdict that would overturn 150 years of oppression, are modern day heroes who deserve a better film than this. I really really hope some really capable director does absolute justice to this very import historical event for LGBTQ community in India. (4/10)
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