This one’s another Hindi BL coming out of Last Leaf, and credit where it’s due, they keep churning out gay series after gay series on their YouTube channel, which counts for something. That said, I’ve got some notes for them that I’ll get into later. This particular story feels a bit different from their usual stuff, it’s got that vibe you’d get from a Bollywood movie where the female lead ends up reforming a thug and turning him into a better man. 8 episodes here, each around 35 minutes, and overall it was a fine watch, nothing more.
Ayush is living with his mom, grinding away to prepare for his medical entrance exam, and his dad had already been killed by local goons before this story even starts. On exam day itself, a local goon named Luv kidnaps him and forces him to take the entrance test in place of a politician’s son, which costs Ayush his shot at becoming a doctor. We learn he’s got a boyfriend he’s been with for years who’s already off in Delhi studying medicine, and Ayush is left dealing with the fallout of losing his exam chance alone. He’s been trying to reach his boyfriend since the incident with no response, but keeps telling himself he’s probably just busy. Eventually though, Luv starts feeling guilty once he realizes what he’s actually done and sees just how much Ayush and his mother, a single mom, have had to struggle over the years. He also happens to overhear Ayush coming out to his mother and telling her about his boyfriend. After Ayush files a police complaint against the politician’s son, Luv decides to protect the two of them from any retaliation and basically moves himself into their home to keep watch. We also learn Luv had a thing for makeup as a kid, but his father used to beat him for it. When Ayush still hasn’t heard from his boyfriend after a few days, he finds out the guy’s moved on with someone else, and it wrecks him. That’s around when Luv starts developing feelings for Ayush, even though he knows there’s basically no chance those feelings get returned. Through Ayush and his mother’s steady effort and their willingness to help Luv actually change, he does become a different person, and Ayush finally starts seeing him for who he’s really become. In the end Ayush tells him to keep pursuing his education and to never raise a hand against anyone again if he wants a real shot with him.
Honestly, there isn’t all that much of an actual gay romance running through this show. They clearly tried to bring something a little different to the table, and there was a lot of room to do more with it. Maybe a second season could build on it better. Some things I did appreciate, the supportive mother obviously, but even more so how confident and at ease Ayush is with being gay. He’s completely unapologetic about it, especially in that moment explaining to his mom that love is love, plain and simple. And seeing how openly accepting she is too, that not only makes Ayush happy, it’s clearly something new and eye opening for Luv to witness as well. The romantic thread between Ayush and Luv really only kicks in toward the very end of the last episode, so for the most part this was less a love story and more about redeeming the bad guy. Performance wise everyone did a decent job, and just like their earlier shows, this one was shot across two or three apartments.
As interesting as the stories they’re telling can be, they really need to tighten up the pacing. There are stretches where the narration drags and just feels slow. On top of that, they need to actually show some physical affection, because so far they haven’t shown a single kiss between any of their gay couples, and honestly it’s hard to believe that two gay men wouldn’t kiss, hug, or show any affection even alone in private. So yes, the stories feel genuine, but now it’s time to make them feel believable too. It’s also probably time for them to step outside these same apartment sets and raise their production standards if they actually want to grow their audience. Until then though, I appreciate them putting out more gay stories from India. (5.5/10)
