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| Poster for Diario de um Gigolo. |
-Brian Mendonca
The Spanish serial Diario de un Gigolo (2022) or Diary of a Gigolo on Netflix, is a serial with many twists and turns. As most OTT serials do, the plot leaves you guessing. The master stroke at the end leaves you breathless - if only for the audacity with which the director pulls it off.
Diario is about a gigolo, but it is so much more. We come to see Emanuel up close. Is it possible to be involved with so many beautiful women and refrain from falling in love?
Yet that is what Minou's diktat is. She is the proprietor of an art gallery, which is a front for a dating service of male escorts. Like the begum in Begum Jaan she vindicates her profession as a service to the community.
What impresses is that the interest does not flag throughout the ten episodes. It is taut, unravelling a different strand of human psychology every time. So much so, that Noel, the investigating officer has to remain impassive while listening to all their tales.
It is beautiful how Julia paints to ease her trauma. The teacher in her art class reminds her that art has always freed her when she was in a dark place. An art object is also the one which exacts retribution when it is least expected.
The serial is also about big pharma and their culpability. Parallels could be drawn to the Endosulfan case and the post-COVID scenario.
Incarceration of women when they become inconvenient is another theme. The home for the insane supervised by psychiatrists is the new site of confinement. Women are sedated when they try to expose the foul deeds of men.
The serial helps you to commiserate with Emanuel. It invites you to consider his broken life; the search for his brother; and way he gives vent to his rage in the ring. He comes across as a human caught in a web of his own making.
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