by Douglas Messerli
Kumar Chheda (screenwriter and director) Halfway / 2023 [9 minutes]
Saarth and Nakul (Kumar Chheda and Kayan Dadyburjor), two young Indian
men in an evidently turbulent relationship, have agreed to meet up at the
entrance to Juhu Beach in Mumbai.
Saarth, however, arrives late,
with Nakul having to wait for more than a half hour. Further, Saarth is waiting
at the entrance near the famed Shivaji Maharaj statue, while Nakul has been
waiting at the Novotel entrance. Nakul has to get back to work quickly, and
expresses his frustration as both set out to navigate the beach in opposite
directions.
Nakul is irritated that Saarth
has not called him to check. The Novotel entrance, he argues on the phone, is
the usual place they meet. But as Saarth reminds him there is no regular
place since the last time they met at the beach it was a year ago.
We soon learn that Nakul has asked Saarth to
move in with him, the latter suggesting he needed time to consider it.
Accordingly, both are frustrated, Nakul for the lack of an immediate response,
and Saarth for Nakul’s interpretation of his reticence as a definite “no,” and
perhaps an end of their relationship, particularly since the two have been
dating for two years.
Saarth simply argues that he
has a lot going on, and he simply needs more time to decide. The fact that they
end up at the opposite sides of the beach, he argues, says something about them
as a couple.
That’s just a
miscommunication, Nakul argues; it means nothing.
Like everything else that’s
been happening, Saarth answers back.
There is silence on the both
phones before Nakul, stopped in his tracks, asks the most important question: “Do
you want to be with me Saarth?”
Saarth is stunned by the
question, arguing that if Nakul doesn’t comprehend that he has left his work
and is walking now a mile to meet with him, he has nothing more to say.
Only now they find they are
each at the other entrance, having presumably missed each other in passing as
they spoke on their phones.
Saarth is willing to release
Nakul and meet him at another time, knowing that his friend must get back to
work. But Nakul turns finally toward the sea, commenting that, in fact, they
missed the sunset as well.
The sun, low in the sky,
comes back out of the clouds, and Saarth, also now sharing the view admits “It’s
beautiful.”
“You hate it!” smiles Nakul.
“I…I don’t hate it. I’m just
scared of it for some reason.”
“I know. I’m scared too.
Feels like…something is slipping away.”
“But do you think holding on
tighter’s going to help?”
After a long pause, Nakul
answers: “We don’t see each other Saarth.”
And finally Saarth asks the
real question behind their meeting: “But do you think moving in together is
really going to help?”
Nakul doesn’t know, but
jokes that at least he’ll have someone to do his laundry, Saarth replying with
a laugh, that he’s not doing that!
“I just wanted to know if
you still love me,” Nakul almost pleads.
“Of course, I still love you.”
But then, Nakul wonders, why
do we feel so far, Saarth answering “Because we are.”
“But you know what,” Saarth
continues, “I’m going to make sure that I make time so that you don’t feel like
slipping away.”
“And I’m going to talk to you
more,” adds Nakul.
They move off again, this
time promising to meet halfway.
Although, this short film is
founded on the simplest of metaphors, it still remains a lovely statement of how
all relationships are established and maintained, particularly that of two
queer men in love, with little else to support them socially and spiritually except
their own will and desires.
Los Angeles, October 16, 2025
Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (October 2025).
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