Movie Review: Evening Shadows

Producers- Shridhar Rangayan, Karim Ladak, Sagar Gupta and Mohammad Shaik Hussain Ali

Director:  Sridhar Rangayan

Star Cast: Mona Ambegaonkar, Ananth Narayanan Mahadevan, Devansh Doshi and  Arpit Chaudhary

Genre- Social

Rating- ***1/2

Touching film on a queer couple!

Jyothi Venkatesh

After striking down of the law Sec 377 in September 2018 by the Supreme Court, thereby legalizing same-sex love in India, there has been a new focus in making the LGBTQ community more visible through cinema and the arts. Evening Shadows is one such film which deals with gay relationship in a subtle manner.

Set in South India and Mumbai, 'Evening Shadows' is a tender heartwarming story about a mother-son bond that has to withstand the ravages of time, distance and truths. The best thing about the topical and contemporary film is that it sets out to treat a homosexual relationship like just any other love story happening in the modern society today, without any trappings or larger than life melodrama..

The film tells the story of Kartik , who returns to his hometown in Karnataka after spending four years in Mumbai as a photographer but is bewildered to see a girl and her family waiting for him. They have been called by his father Damodar who wants Kartik to settle down by getting married soon. His family is unaware that he is gay and in a happy relationship with Aman , with whom he has been living in Mumbai.

The plus point of the film is that besides being a film about two gay lovers, Evening Shadows also has an appealing portrayal of a mother-son relationship. While Anant Mahadevan is excellent as the strict father, Mona Ambegaonkar is brilliant as the poor mother who is struck between her love for her son as well as her duty as a housewife. Shubha Mudgal’s haunting vocals and soulful renditions accompany the viewer through the film.

It is difficult to fathom a Tamilian family settled in Srirangapatna, speaking in chaste Hindi. Even in a scene where the family visits Talakadu for a picnic, Tamil is used instead of the local language Kannada, which makes it hard to connect the place to the characters.

To sum up, on the whole, I’d say that the touching film on a queer couple will appeal to everyone as the normalization of a queer love story is maintained throughout through pure innocence not only in the characters, but also in the narrative.

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Tags: Bollywood, Bollywood News, Bollywood Updates, Television, Telly News, Movie Review, Evening Shadows, Mona Ambegaonkar, Ananth Narayanan Mahadevan, Devansh Doshi and  Arpit Chaudhary