Ujaan, Soumya and Bunty are three childhood friends whose lives have turned out in different ways. While searching for a rented flat, Ujaan bumps into Amrita and moves in with her. Soumya is engaged to Shreya, but he fails to be a caring partner to Shreya, while simultaneously engaging in a “friends-with-benefits” relationship with Riya, Ujaan’s ex-girlfriend. Meanwhile, Bunty keeps hunting around for love, and has a secret of his own.
Aamra. Bedroom. Maach Mishti N More. Family Album. Mainak Bhaumik has had a penchant for urban relationship dramas for a long time now, and even though he does not helm it, Boyfriends & Girlfriends is cut out from the same cloth as the aforementioned films. Director Suvankar Paul directs this five-episode series perfunctorily, where the talented young cast just seems stuck in the same themes which Bhaumik loves to explore in his own films—lack of intimacy, male insecurities and so on. In fact, with better writing, this series could’ve worked as an exploration of upper-class Bengali masculinities and their pressures, but unfortunately, it is a lot less ambitious than even its trailer suggests. This is really underwhelming.
The performances are okay, but nothing great. Riddhi Sen is assured as Ujaan, who keeps trying to balance his male ego with his “wokeness”. Rwitobroto Mukherjee is saddled with an underwritten character called Soumya, and beyond the fact that he has an extremely complicated sex life, we don’t get to understand much about him. Ujan Chatterjee is alright as Bunty. Ishaa Saha is lively as Amrita, Adrija Roy portrays the hungry-for-affection Shreya without making her a caricature, and Madhurima Ghosh portrays the polyamorous Riya with aplomb.