This is the second vertical AI BL drama I've sat through, and honestly I went in knowing better. I had it on while I was doing cardio at the gym, and what struck me was just how much the plot echoed the last one I watched. Same step brother romance angle, same mystery girlfriend showing up near the end, same extra guy pining after one of the leads. Genuinely the only thing going for it was the runtime, the whole thing wrapped up in forty five minutes flat. The setup kicks off with Finn moving schools because his mom just married into money. He finds out his new step brother Aiden goes to the same place, and he's warned to keep his distance from him. Their first run in at school is rocky, just like you'd expect, but there's this odd pull between them neither can shake off. Finn keeps telling himself not to read into it because Aiden's straight and openly homophobic. Things shift when some kids start bullying Finn and the student council president, Ryan, steps in to ...
Lakshmi is a school principal and a single mother to Varun who is in his first year of college. The two live in a coastal town on an island in their happy space with Varun's cousin living with them after his mother's death. Soon Varun starts to feel he is getting attracted to male masculinity and I this quest to find answers he does a few sessions with a psychiatrist who eventually then introduces him to his gay son Kartik who is also an activist. Slowly the two boys start coming closer. Varun is envious of how supportive Kartik's family is. But all hell breaks lose when he is outed to Lakshmi. She doesn't take the news well and throws her son out of home declaring that he is as good as dead. Varun's friends try to reason with her and so do Kartik's parents but she will have none of it. Varun finds love with Karthik, but he will never be as happy as he once was. Lakshmi can't bear the loss of her son and sets out to find him.
The film has the heart in the right place but there are places where it gets little preachy. Which, I can understand is needed because the audience needs to be educated. For example the scene where the psychiatrist explains LGBTQ, what it means and how people need to be educated that this not a disease and another scene where Kartik explains Varun who just like in the straight world, gays also have good and bad and all kinds of people. Sadly, everyone always thinks of sex when people come out and that needs to change. The love story between Varun and Kartik comes out of nowhere but nonetheless is pleasant to watch. With everything that Varun is going through, an anchor like Kartik is exactly what he needed. The ending of the film is a bot open ended, where its not very clear whether the mother is eventually going to come around or not, but she is just ok seeing her son with Kartik in peace. The film is a genuine and heartfelt effort but sadly could use a lot of fitness to make it a better product overall. Even though the film doesn't have any extra sub stories that can take away from the main plot but at almost 110 minutes of runtime, it still feels bit too long. This being an Indian film, I will always have a soft corner, but the industry needs to make something path breaking. The regular run of the mill queer stories are not doing any good or making any difference. But I still respect and thank the effort. (5/10)
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