Pine Cone

I recommend folks from the community and others to watch Pine Cone, more for its beauty to normalise desires and a message for folks to let their gaurds down and give love another chance.

I personally liked how the movie communicated the experiences a queer individual faces in their daily lives. Very relatable.

I wished the movie didn't end, wanted to watch more and more of it. And I guess, that speaks a lot of the movie, that the audience is hooked to know "what's next?" "How do they work it out?".

I'd love to have more and more folks (out of the community) to watch this, and get a sneak peak into what it is like for a queer individual to find love whilst operating in all the constructs of the society.

Onir's Anirban Dhar latest film doing the rounds in film festivals and special screenings, was screened for an invited audience this evening at The American Centre in the city. Personally, I like his films not because he'd been a junior and a friend at the University or his sister Irene Irene Dhar Malik I knew before I knew him. I like them because of their honesty and simplicity.

Though Onir describes the film as a 'queer' love story told rather autobiographically, I related to it mostly as a tale of 'heartbreaks and hope' that, I'm sure, will touch any viewer irrespective of their sexual orientations. We have all been through most of them whatever the orientation.

References to 'My Beautiful Launderette' by Hanif Qureshi and relevant dialogues would possibly stir all the emotions that we all have. Be it humour, pain, anger, sorrow ... whatever. In other words, it's a story well-told. If you like to listen to stories, rather watch them, you'd love and live every moment of it. And boy o boy, he really knows how to tell stories on screen. For me, I failed to hide a tear towards the end.

Things have changed since his first film 'My Brother ... Nikhil' released nineteen years ago and Onir too has evolved with the times. The film told in three parts is aptly set in 1999, 2009 and 2019. The years are important as the first year is when the country's first gay pride parade is held in Calcutta, the second, when the Delhi High Court decriminalises homosexuality and the third year, when the Supreme Court decriminalises homosexuality once agin after the verdict of 2009 was overturned in 2012. Also, the characters as Muslim, Hindu and Christian add a separate religious angle to the discourse.

Shot on iPhone with a meagre crew of about fifteen odd people, the film is made with a shoestring budget. Arvind Kannaviran has done a great job with a tad unstable camera movements and long duration shots in places where they make a big difference to the story in contrast to the shorter shots that depict dreams and freedom through shadowgraphy by the characters in one story. Vivek Philips's music is infectious. Irene's edit stitches the emotions with precision so that the 't's are crossed and the 'i's are dotted. What's most interesting about the way the film unfurls is that the audience is kept guessing about how things would conclude till the end.

I sincerely hope that the CBFC would clear the film without any cuts and people would be able to watch it in Cinemas, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Whatever happens, I will wish that 'Into that heaven of freedom' my country will awake. Well, if it doesn't, to echo a dialogue of the young duo in the part of the film set in Gangtok, I'd say ... 'Hum saare duniya ki gaand maar denge!

The film demands your full attention. I watched the most beautiful love-making scenes between two men in a hall full of high school and college students, and none of us felt uncomfortable. Instead, we rooted for the character and hoped for a happy ending, even though the film was as realistic as it came. Pine Cone has one of the most unique stories, which even the most progressive Western films on queer themes fail to portray. The dialogues and verses of poetry in the film pull your heartstrings, making me want to meet the writer and whoever inspired it.

This makes me proud as a south Asian and someone who grew up watching Bollywood, that this industry is finally cathing up in telling authentic stories of queer people.

Excellent character development threads seamlessly in this excellent movie.. Stunning photography and a beautiful story that many gay men can relate. One of the finest films at the October 2023, Outshine Film Festival, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The puzzle of developing a meaningful relationship is studied from the present moment to the past. Every moment in a prior relationship has a profound impact on an individual's make up. Pine Cone explores the development of character by creating a video storytelling platform to discover how and why we behave in the social and technological environment of our complex lives. I highly recommend this move!

I watched the Pinecone premiere during the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne in August 2023. The film included some beautiful photography and its three arcs were all visually and thematically distinct, which was impressive and essential for the telling of this story.

The story felt instantly familiar and relatable yet it managed to surprise and delight at times. There is an underlying sense of sadness in the overall narrative presented but fortunately this is balanced out with a message of hope which is immensely important for the target audience, especially those in a more vulnerable state of mind.

Congratulations to director Onir and team for another stellar feature.