COBALT BLUE (Netflix)
Netflix held off releasing this Indian Hindi film in its home country earlier this year to avoid political entanglements during the national elections. Gay issues can be polarising there. This is one of the reasons writer-director Sachin Kundalkar, wrote the story as a novel (it was a best-seller) in the first place, going on to adapt it and direct it as this movie.
On the surface it’s the somewhat gentle story of a man who comes to stay with an Indian family and falls in love with the son and the seemingly non-binary daughter at the same time.
To those outside the family, the boarder is referred to as a “distant relative” because it’s seen as shameful that he’s a paying guest. But the visitor, Prateik (Prateik Babbar) is a committed and passionate artist and, though the set-up for the movie is rather languorous and drawn-out, the sequences of him arranging his art around his new room are stunning and sensual, and beautifully shot. The recording of a female jazz singer plays in the background, “…when the morning dew is cobalt blue…”, as soft tropical rain falls onto the roof. It’s quite hypnotic and the family’s young son, Tanay (Neelay Mehendale), a university student, is clearly bewitched.
Cut to the two men kissing and making love in the moonlight. They keep their relationship a secret for many reasons, not the least being that the sister has an eye on the lodger, too. The secrecy of this affair adds to the tension of the relationship.
The son also has a layered connection with his professor who proffers samples of literature to challenge and inspire an eager student, such as EM Forster’s gay classic, Maurice.
Tanay finds his first experience of love quite overwhelming and, rather oddly, treats the tortoise in the garden pool as a sounding board. It’s not long until the free-spirited sister pursues her designs on the boarder and, of course, it can’t end well.
What begins as sensual and erotic gradually widens to become emotionally complicated, even violent, as boundaries are pushed. (MA15+, 112m, subtitled)