Watching: LOEV

(2015) Sahil (Dhruv Ganesh) is a gay music producer living with his handsome but immature slacker boyfriend Alex (Siddharth Menon) - whom Sahil treats rather more like his child than his partner - when he gets word that his old friend Jai (Shiv Pandit), now a big-shot Wall Street success living in New York, is coming to Mumbai on business. Dropping everything to spend time with his long-term buddy, Sahil takes Jai out to the country for a relaxing get-back to nature, prior to Jai's meetings, and it soon becomes apparent that, in the time they've been apart, an electricity - an attraction - between the two exists that is hard to ignore (and comes off very palpable on-screen). Jai knows Sahil is gay - has even met and knows Alex - but it's particularly obvious his teasings have turned to flirtations, and as the two spend time hiking and enjoy the beautiful countryside the tension builds with the question many of us have asked ourselves over time: can long-term friends turn that corner and become more? Should they? And if so, what might it cost the friendship? Loev answers the question slowly, building up the relationship of these two long-term best friends who know and care for each other, but also know how to push each other's buttons until an explosive, impetuous act changes things forever. Ganesh (who, tragically, died at age 29 just prior to the film's release) and Pandit are perfectly cast and have brilliant chemistry on-screen, in a love story that depicts "loev" very much as it is in real life: messy, imperfect, unpredictable - sometimes even devastating. (not rated)  8/10 stars