Loev
Reel Affirmations 2016
Friday, Oct. 14
9 p.m.
GALA’s Tivoli Theatre
This is both a warning and a full-throated recommendation: Loev is probably not what you expect. Not least because we finally have a piece of cinema from India that doesn’t cater to foreign expectations — you won’t see overcrowded trains, extreme poverty, or caste systems here. This is modern India, these are modern characters, and Sudhansu Saria’s debut feature is an absolute must-see.
In Mumbai, Sahil (Dhruv Ganesh) bids goodbye to his boyfriend Alex (Siddharth Menon) and heads off to the airport to meet an old friend, Jai (Shiv Pandit). Currently in New York and wildly more successful than Sahil, Jai is in town for two days to close a business deal. The pair head off for 36 hours and, almost immediately, the tension of a romantic history can be felt in the air.
What’s remarkable here is how utterly unassuming Saria’s film is. With gentle direction, epic tracking shots that drink in the landscapes of India’s Sandhan Valley and Mahabaleshwar plateau, minimal editing (there’s one continuous shot early in the film that impresses), and a soft tone to proceedings, Saria — who also wrote the film — allows the audience to make their own assumptions about Sahil and Jai. Were they lovers? Friends who longed for more? Did Jai move away before either could test the extent of their emotions?
The men explore old haunts, hike together, bicker, tell jokes, share gifts, enjoy meals, drink in their lush surroundings and one another, and gradually ramp up the sexual tension. It burns in the background, maintained in lingering glances, extended touches, and playful banter — homosexuality is still illegal in India, and the film had to be made in secret, so the downplaying of their emotions in public is both a necessity and a reality. It builds to a heady, sensual crescendo at one point — which is beautifully shot and acted — but Sahil shuts things down, angering Jai.
As Sahil, Ganesh’s large, expressive eyes allow him to convey warmth, joy, guilt, excitement and countless other emotions with ease. He transforms from being a stick-in-the-mud with carefree Alex into a freer spirit with Jai. Shiv Pandit plays his Jai as someone not entirely comfortable with what they’re feeling — but desperate to find out what’s really there. Both men have chemistry to spare, and their strong performances anchor this film.
They also help it to deliver an absolute sucker punch in its third act. As the sexual frustration builds upon returning to Mumbai, hours before the pair are due to have dinner with Alex everything boils over in the most unexpected way imaginable (no spoilers, but be prepared to grip your armrests). It’s a brutal, uncomfortable moment, one which drags Loev from an occasionally tense film into one that will have your heart in your mouth as Sahil and Jai must sit in Alex’s company, each internally processing what has just happened. Is it gratuitous? Yes. Does it threaten to derail the careful, beautiful work Saria has created to that point? Yes. Does it work? Absolutely.
You’ll spend the last twenty minutes or so of Loev unsure of where the characters will go. The end result will undoubtedly divide audiences — and the mere fact that many will leave the theater not hating one of Saria’s characters speaks volumes to the groundwork laid in advance of that gut punch of a scene. Loev isn’t a perfect film, but you’ll get lost in its world, its quiet confidence, its lack of handholding as it weaves its delicate story. And then you’ll spend twenty minutes, like Sahil and Jai, wondering what just happened — and why this quiet little film has managed to rock your world.
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