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...
So Basil is this classic womanizer type who runs the moment any girl starts catching feelings. After a hookup with Lily, she gets fed up and puts a curse on him, nothing ritualistic, just pure frustrated girl energy, basically wishing that he feels everything he's put all those women through. That same night, his childhood best friend and roommate Theo gets his heart broken when his girlfriend turns down his marriage proposal. The two guys sit there consoling each other, one thing leads to another, and suddenly they're kissing and then sleeping together. The morning after, they both just pretend it didn't happen. Basil eventually goes back to Lily looking for some kind of fix and she half jokes that a kiss from someone who genuinely loves him might break it. Meanwhile Theo is quietly falling apart because turns out he's been bisexual his whole life and has had real feelings for Basil since they were kids, feelings he buried because he didn't want to lose the friendship. And Basil on his end is starting to question everything about himself too.
Look, the story goes exactly where you think it's going to go. The second you see two attractive guys messing around with women, if you're a gay audience member you're already mentally rooting for them to figure it out. That's just how it works. The Lily curse angle is actually kind of fun though. She wasn't some mystical figure, she was just a girl venting, and the fact that Basil took it so seriously is where most of the comedy comes from. Oddly enough those two end up becoming pretty good friends through the whole mess, which I liked. Theo's bisexuality reveal makes total sense looking back and explains a lot. What I couldn't fully get past though is how quickly and comfortably Basil went along with everything that first night. Like okay I get it, the plot needs to move, but still. I don't think the filmmakers lost sleep over that detail though. This is very much a watch it, enjoy the vibe and forget kind of film. And honestly that's fine. I'm not going to remember it a week from now but I didn't hate the time I spent watching it. Unless Theo's actor shows up in something else, because wow that man is built, I probably won't think about this one again.
It's harmless, mildly entertaining, and does exactly what it sets out to do, nothing more. (4.5/10)
Comments