Arvind Caulagi | Taps / 2023

an uncertain future

by Douglas Messerli

 

Arvind Caulagi (screenwriter and director) Taps / 2023 [15 minutes]

 

There’s not much to Indian director Arvind Caulagi’s short film Taps. Rohan (Ullas Samrat), a medical doctor, is off for a year’s residency in Baltimore in the US, and his lover Akshay (Rohit Mehra) has been working hard to pack his bags and wrap gifts for the people who have helped him attain the position and others. But he has forgotten one important thing, the “five taps for Rohan.”

    We don’t quite know what the “taps” are or mean, except that they clearly remain an in-joke for the couple, presumably something sexual, but also necessary for Rohan’s safe journey and their continued love while he is away.

     But Akshay, clearly troubled by an entire year alone and the fact that Rohan has put all the preparations for that journey in his hands, is clearly upset, not as we might say, “in the mood for love,” despite the fact that it is his and Rohan’s last night together until Rohan’s eventual return.

     We get the sense that even the talk about the fact that Rohan has given Akshay the okay to see others during his absence has upset him. The very fact that he has “permission” suggests a difference that he cannot quite accept in their deep relationship.

     Returning home from work, accordingly, Rohan does not find his usual playful and loving Akshay, but a man that doesn’t what to be hugged and snuggled. He becomes particularly upset when Rohan wants to pack up a bag of pickles Rohan bought especially for Akshay in order to bring it to “Dan,” the person most responsible for help Rohan get his temporary residency, presumably in the famed Johns Hopkins Hospital. In a phone argument with Rohan earlier, he has also accidentally broken the gift Rohan was planning to bring Dan.

    It all ends in words that both men regret, with Akshay telling him to leave already, and Rohan angrily storming off. Eventually, after failed phone calls, they hook up again and wait for the Uber cab to arrive. Clearly this was not the way that either of them imagined they would spend their last night together for an entire year.

    Yet they kiss and make-up—much to the disdain and shock of the Uber driver—Akshay finally revealing something about the “five taps,” as he quickly looks around to see if anyone might be watching, and hits his cock with his hands at least four times before complaining that “it hurts,” sending Rohan off with a remembrance of his source of sexual satisfaction.

     But, in fact, such a long distance from one another will hurt, and can cause damage to a permanent relationship.

     The critic for Gaysi, jhanvi believes, contrarily:

 

“As most short films are, they either show us the journey that characters go through right before something is about to end or begin—but what sets TAPS apart is it’s set right in the middle of Rohan and Akshay’s relationship. It’s already established, and it’s more at a turning point for them. It’s not an ending nor a beginning, just a couple venturing into a different mode of their relationship.”

 

     I can tell you, however, that such a different shift in a relationship can change everything and put to an end to what already seems established. What if the lonely Akshay actually does visit a gay bar and meets someone less demanding that Rohan, or Rohan, in visiting a new world, discovers a more open society that can help him more fully express love? These clearly are the fears of the far more organized and troubled Akshay, while Rohan appears to be self-assured, relying on others like Akshay to make his travels go smoothly. “Out there,” where he is suddenly headed, he may seek out someone to make his life as easy, seek out someone like Dan, which is perhaps why Akshay is not so ready to give up his pickles.

 

Los Angeles, July 21, 2025

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (July 2025).