EVENING SHADOWS: Love in India is beautifully rendered

Director Sridhar Rangayan is doing trailblazing work for queer film content coming from India, and he is justifiable proud of EVENING SHADOWS, now showing through January on Netflix.

Devansh Doshi plays Kartik, a charming photographer who has returned to Southern India from the home he shares with his lover in Dubai. His father is a strict traditionalist who shows no affection to his wife who serves him hand and foot, and no respect for his son. The battle between father and son will be familiar to many, but the locale adds tremendously to the tension.

But it is the sensational performance of Mona Ambegaonkar as the mother that makes EVENING SHADOWS a must see. The journey Kartik and his mother take which begins as a lighthearted trip to the country to see some newly discovered ruins,is a sequence that I will never forget.

That film is set during a recent period in India in which the high court upheld a colonial-era law, known as section 377 under which gay sex is categorized as an "unnatural offence" and that adds greatly to the tremendous stress of all involved. The film is populated with minor characters dealing with love (and sex) in traditional ways.

EVENING SHADOWS is a very progressive look into a society with a complex history of variant sexuality. You will not forget it.