This Indian series is being sold as a story about a gay man falling for his straight best friend but honestly, at its heart, it's really about friendship and what friendship can look like when it gets complicated and messy and emotionally loaded. It's available on the YouTube channel of Last Leaf Pictures, seven episodes of about 30 minutes each. I had mixed feelings throughout and a big part of that comes down to how I felt about one of the lead characters, but more on that in a bit. Anshul and Kavith are the two men at the centre of everything. They first meet on a train heading to Delhi, both of them not really ready to go back to their hometowns. They get off midway, turn around and head back to Mumbai to give themselves one more shot at the life they want there. Anshul is an aspiring actor with a young son back in Delhi living with his grandmother. Kavith is gay, freshly out of yet another relationship, his 17th by his own count over the years. The two strike up this unusu...
The central characters are two brother Andrea and Marco, both high school students and not legal yet. Marco is outwardly confident but secretly struggles to connect with others, while Andrea, the more outgoing of the two, wrestles with his gender identity and expression. Told via time jumps between present day and recent flashbacks, Marco’s turbulent past with self-inflicted harm which affects his swimming career are juxtaposed with Andrea’s secret life messaging men and dressing up as a woman. Marco secretly admires a girl Carol, who eventually becomes his girlfriend, but she is also confused since she wants to make her ex boyfriend Daniele jealous. Marco always struggles with expectations and his journey is subtler than Andrea. Daniele happens to be an interesting character. Dealing with his own complicated home life, he has been chatting with a mystery girl online and has string feelings for her. Turns out that insta account is of Andrea's female persona where he never showed his face. Their online relationship slowly builds into an intimate and emotionally charged connection, which eventually Andrea breaks off when he sees Dainele pushing them to meet. We also have Nina, a lesbian girl in Andre's class who happened to have slept with Andrea's ex-grilfriend. They start offf on a bad note given their history but a warm friendship soon starts to develop. Nina is the first person in whose Andrea confides about him wanting to dress up as female with makeup and how he enjoys it. We are never clearly told the length of gender confusion that Andrea is going through. Their relationship also slowly ends up reaching physical intimacy. All this while Andrea has been struggling so much that he cannot take it anymore and comes out to his father. Becasue of constant push from Daniele, he also decides to finally reveal his true identity to him. Season 1 does end on any closure, it leaves many arcs open: Andrea is still in the process of understanding their identity, Daniele remains conflicted about his feelings, Marco is left questioning his role and relationships, Nina and Carola continue to grapple with their own internal struggles.
It fees like this season was more about 'what it means' that 'what happens'. The makers have handled every individual character and subject with sensitivity and respect and inclusivity. The show lies its very best to capture the confusion of self-discovery, the pressure of societal expectations, the loneliness of growing up in small town and the world of social media and the interactions we make. I like dhow nothing is over the top and everything that happens is shown in a way like it would happen in real world. As I said in the beginning, for me and also for the show, the big focus is on Andrea. The show doesn’t rush to define them, nor does it frame their exploration as something that needs to be resolved quickly. Instead, we see Andrea experimenting with appearance, behavior, and emotional connection. The lack of explicit labelling mirrors real life where identity doesn’t always come with immediate clarity. Daniele's connection with Andrea is intimate, tender, and emotionally charged, but it doesn’t fit neatly into conventional categories. Also because Daniele has no idea who he has been talking to. We are not shown what really happens when the two decide to meet and I am very curious to know how future seasons take this on. All other central characters like Marco, Carol, Nina etc give ample breathing time and space to grown on us as audience. The pacing is deliberately slow. Scenes are allowed to breathe, sometimes lingering longer than expected. Honestly, it does get frustrating at times because I have now become very sued to fast paced shows. So it helps watching in 1.5x speed. Thankfully that didnt stop me from fully appreciating what the show it trying to say and more importantly how it is trying to say it. The lead actor playing Andrea/Marco is absolutely fantastic. He manages to create two distinct individuals without relying on exaggerated differences. The contrast is subtle—found in body language, eye movement, and tone of voice. And you know exactly which character he is playing. It is a beautiful performance. The supporting cast also delivers strong performances, bringing depth to characters that could have easily been reduced to archetypes. Each character feels lived-in, with their own motivations and contradictions.
I would say more than exploring gender fluidity, the show is more about the essence of adolescence, in a way that feels honest and unfiltered. It challenges traditional narratives around identity and relationships, offering a more nuanced and inclusive perspective. And gender fluidity and questioning of sexuality is one very important chapter of it. I did enjoy the show quite a bit. (7.5/10)
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