ONCE UPON A LIE

Vivek, a 30-something pickpocket in Pune, uses seduction as a distraction, pressing against men on crowded buses to steal and satisfy his desires. Detached, he exploits others’ hunger while suppressing his own. Meeting Kartik, a soft-spoken student seeking genuine intimacy, disrupts Vivek’s control. What begins as a hunt unravels into vulnerability, as Kartik’s tenderness challenges Vivek’s transactional world. The film blends the raw eroticism of Vivek’s encounters with the quiet, messy intimacy Kartik offers. As Vivek grapples with feelings he has long suppressed, the line between hunter and hunted blurs, leaving him to confront the cost of his transactional life.