Ajay Duggal | Boyfriend / 2023

returning a saree

by Douglas Messerli

 

Ajay Duggal (screenwriter and director) Boyfriend / 2023 [22 minutes]

 

A man (Ayush Dubey) living in New Delhi has left behind a young woman, Shavani, in Agra to whom he had been engaged to marry. Suddenly her younger brother (Sachin Sharma) shows up at his New Delhi apartment to return the saree he has given her for the wedding ceremony.

     The young brother also explains that he has come to New Delhi for possible admission to the university, although he is uncertain of acceptance. But he also, on account of his family, is not only confused but upset by his future brother-in-law’s sudden disappearance, and the fact that he has left behind his beautiful, intelligent, and capable sister without explanation.

     The girl’s brother understandably does not feel comfortable in the apartment of a man who has shamed his family, even though the elder offers him potato paratha and suggests the boy rest before facing the metropolis and returning home, an offer the brother uneasily accepts.

     But before he can even take advantage of the other’s kindness, they receive cellphone messages that after a new outbreak of COVID in New Delhi, the government is closing down the city for 6 days, with severe police actions for anyone leaving their home for unnecessary purposes.

     The jilted bride’s brother immediately bolts, but soon returns, with nowhere else to go, when he discovers, having returned in tears, that in the streets the police are beating anyone who appears and that there is no longer any access out of New Delhi through bus, plane, or any other form of public transportation, not even autos or rickshaws.

     The would-be brother-in-law offers the country boy the use of his apartment and half his mattress, but the young stranger is more than uncomfortable sharing a bed, and finally the late-night elder leaves his bed for a chair at the table, insisting the young man use his bed.

     In a call from his parents the next day, the young man insists he is simply staying with a friend. And the apartment owner assures his own mother that he has enough food to wait out the week of lockdown.

     A few days later, the two have men have settled their contretemps, and again the young newcomer to the city, finally having adjusted to sharing a bed and now ready to return home, asks the other once again why he has abandoned his sister. The New Delhian finally called to task, admits that he is gay, that he likes boys.

    Momentarily, the young country boy is upset and astounded, but soon admits that he too has shared such feelings, and finally recounts the fact that he was highly aroused when the city boy visited their home, but attempted to quell his feelings since the stranger was soon to be his brother-in-law.

     He had always dreamed of having a relationship with the man who was to marry his sister, and now wonders whether he might not be his boyfriend, with the stipulation that after his education he will have to return home to be married, his parents being strict conservatives. But we suspect that after a few months or years in New Delhi he may change his mind with regard to his parents’ values.

    At first our recalcitrant “hero” appears to ignore the young man’s request, but soon softens, particularly as the outsider, preparing to leave, explains that it was his appearance upon the home scene who first led the boy to perceive that he was gay.

   The two finally kiss—one of the longest kisses I’ve observed in a short gay film—sealing their new relationship, all brought on strangely by the dread pandemic and the city-wide lockdown, and a visit, perversely enough, to return his sister’s wedding saree.

 

Los Angeles, July 30, 2025

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (July 2025).