Katlaa Curry (Gujarati) [Fish Curry]

Regional Indian cinema rarely ventures into gay love stories, so a Gujarati film taking that on already feels significant, and this one genuinely wants to say something meaningful about self-acceptance in a world that makes it so hard. The Narmada river villages it is shot across are visually stunning, and you can feel the care that went into capturing that world. Where things fall apart is in the telling. Scenes drag on without purpose, and a sharper edit that kept the camera focused on how these two men actually fall for each other would have done this story a lot more justice.

Raaymal is a fisherman who pulls Ratan out of the water when he is drowning. Ratan is gentle and withdrawn, someone who has not had much of a chance to learn about life, and Raaymal takes it upon himself to change that, teaching him to cook, to row, to find his footing, and a genuine friendship grows between them. Ratan does not eat meat and Raaymal is devoted to his fish curry, which turns out to matter more as things develop. When Ratan finally tells Raaymal that his family's rejection of his sexuality was what drove him to try to take his own life, Raaymal just laughs it off without any judgment and goes on to help Ratan build a home close to the village. Ratan eventually takes it upon himself to learn Raaymal's favourite Katlaa curry, and when he cooks it for him, Raaymal says it is the best thing he has ever eaten. Ratan confesses his love, and Raaymal does not know what to do with that at first, having never really sat with his own sexuality before, but the pull is there and he cannot ignore it. A short stretch of happiness follows until Raaymal's mother starts pushing him toward marriage, and he gives in to that pressure despite everything he is feeling. The marriage is miserable, with Raaymal constantly at odds with his wife, especially over her making fish curry after he has asked her not to. What shifts things is a friend telling him plainly that love has nothing to do with gender, and then his wife, who quietly clocked the truth about him from the very beginning, tells him that living by other people's opinions is no way to live at all. That is what finally gets Raaymal to stop running from himself and go back to Ratan.

Watching this film feels almost voyeuristic, like you have stepped into these fishing communities uninvited, with the bamboo shelters and the textures of that daily life feeling completely unfiltered. The story has real warmth and hits genuinely tender notes. What I kept bumping up against, and I am struggling to fully articulate this, is that even with all of that going for it I could not quite feel it the way I wanted to. It never goes for melodrama, which I respect, it keeps things gentle throughout, and the queerness of it creeps in slowly and naturally rather than being announced. Ratan cooking fish curry for a man who loves it, as a vegetarian, is quietly one of the most romantic gestures in the whole film. The way they cannot acknowledge each other out in the open, communicating entirely through glances and silences, works beautifully in those moments. The wife's maturity about the whole situation is genuinely interesting to watch, but the film just leaves her fate hanging there without ever addressing what her life looks like after all of this, and that needed more attention. The ending gives both Raaymal and Ratan something they have never really had before, a person who makes them feel safe in a world that has not been kind to either of them, and that lands well. My main issue comes down to the performances and some unevenness in the direction. The two leads are not doing anything wrong exactly, but the chemistry and spark that a story like this runs on just never fully ignited for me.

Happy this film exists and glad to see Indian regional indie filmmaking going here, it is genuinely a step forward, even if there is still plenty of ground left to cover. (5.5/10)