What started out as a chill weekend watch son turned into a frustration rant to my bestie over WhatsApp voice notes. The problem is I can’t categorize this film ,and while I love abstract films like any other film buff, I really don’t get what this film set out to say. 

Is it a coming out tale? Nope

…a queer love story? Kinda?

or a queer indian narrative? Not really

It seems to me that the focus of this film is just–Shaadi. 

It’s so obsessed with getting the leads married that it forgets to check in with its lead couple if they even know each other enough to commit?

What’s better than queer rights? Shaadi!

It does a decent job of touching on this trope in Indian families where everyone’s sexuality is HUSH HUSH🤫. 

Amar → Punjabi baby queer, ventures to London to explore his sexuality free from his XL-size family. 

Prem on the other hand→ an open and experienced queer left his closet behind eons ago.

There’s very little chance of chemistry besides initial excitement…

Just as I settled into their chemistry, they’re getting married…?

Error 401: Chemistry Not Found

All sorts of shaadi-related Kalesh happens & queerphobic relatives are not even the center of attention?

But you know what is? Miscommunication, casual casteism & boring jokes about who’s better the groom or the groom? 

In the process of “normalizing” queerness, the creators forgot that they are supposed to be a non-cis-het couple👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨. Which requires much more nuance than just being attracted to each other!!!

And the most important thing that filmmakers need to remember, while creating queer narratives, is that normalization does not require them to fit into the already existing cis-het mold! It’s counterintuitive!

There’s no substance in this film that normalizes queer couples, because it’s so hell-bent on making queer couples fit-in.

It stereotypes queer spaces as unsafe, lustful & inherently sinful.

I love rom-coms, especially queer ones, but I also like my leads to show each other some compassion, romance and compatibility. 

This movie said, “let’s be sanskaari-queers”. It’s not a light watch either, there’s no humorous punch besides the family rivalry and cool dadi trope. If I wanted to watch a tale of a Punjabi-Bengali couple, where one is a cute himbo and one is a classic black cat– I’d watch Rocky Rani Ki Prem Kahani. There’s a dire need of more queer narratives, but do we want narratives that are misleading? Sure we need diverse stories, but what good are those if they end up putting us in a box that we try so hard to escape.