This Indian series is being sold as a story about a gay man falling for his straight best friend but honestly, at its heart, it's really about friendship and what friendship can look like when it gets complicated and messy and emotionally loaded. It's available on the YouTube channel of Last Leaf Pictures, seven episodes of about 30 minutes each. I had mixed feelings throughout and a big part of that comes down to how I felt about one of the lead characters, but more on that in a bit. Anshul and Kavith are the two men at the centre of everything. They first meet on a train heading to Delhi, both of them not really ready to go back to their hometowns. They get off midway, turn around and head back to Mumbai to give themselves one more shot at the life they want there. Anshul is an aspiring actor with a young son back in Delhi living with his grandmother. Kavith is gay, freshly out of yet another relationship, his 17th by his own count over the years. The two strike up this unusu...
The documentary introduces us to several people who were targeted during these "witch hunts," and the stories they tell are gut-wrenching. They talk about living in total fear, being followed by investigators, and having their private letters read. The interrogations they went through sounded more like criminal trials than workplace meetings. We hear from an Army bandmaster who is still heartbroken over being treated like a criminal after years of loyal service. There's also a woman from the Women’s Royal Army Corps who describes the horrific experience of being forced into medical exams and pressured to snitch on other lesbians. Another veteran, a Naval radio operator, explains how she lost her entire identity and career in a single night. Finally, the film follows a high-ranking Navy Commander who took his fight all the way to the European Court of Human Rights. He helped start a group called Rank Outsiders, and even though they lost at first in the UK courts, they eventually won and got the ban overturned in 2000.
Even though the film talks to about fifteen different veterans, it focuses on a few specific stories to show just how cruel and humiliating this whole period was. I thought the pacing was spot on—it didn’t feel like it was trying to be "clickbaity" or over-the-top like some documentaries you see these days. One of the coolest parts was hearing an actual tape recording from an old investigation that a victim managed to get their hands on; hearing that voice from the past really made it feel real. The show works because it never loses sight of the human side of the story. Seeing these tough, military veterans break down in tears while talking about things that happened thirty years ago proves that these scars never really go away. It’s incredibly frustrating to watch because the cruelty was so unnecessary, but seeing them finally get justice in the end is a huge relief. Even though they don't use the word PTSD, it’s very clear that the mental and emotional damage is still there today.
This is a powerful and moving documentary that honors the bravery of service members who fought for the right to serve their country without living in fear. (7.5/10)
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