June, the Marathi film, opens with a Haruki Murakami quote, making you immediately sit up. Vaibhav Khisti and Suhrud Godbole direct this debut feature, a strong, refreshing and honest film on the healing of wounded souls and broken relationships. Khisti has earlier assisted on 13 films, including Gulabjaam, Rajwade and Sons, and Axone, while Godbole has produced about eight films, including Pune-52 and Baji. The film, that dropped on the streamer Planet Marathi, a Marathi OTT platform backed by Akshay Bardapurkar, on June 30, can be seen for just Rs 50.

Neel (Siddharth Menon, terrific) suffocates in small-town Aurangabad, desperate to get out. He meets the posh Neha (Nehha Pendse Bayas), from Mumbai, who visits Aurangabad while separated from Abhijeet, her husband (and Neel’s childhood buddy, Jitendra Joshi), following a trauma. She asks him to show her the town, and as the two bond, we are reminded how we can sometimes share our most intimate and horrible secrets with strangers, while unable to share these with family and friends. Each is riven by guilt: Neel confides in Neha the traumatic reason he failed in his engineering exams in Pune and returned home; and she feels guilty for destroying a life and her family. The film addresses many psychological issues, including bullying, self-harm, sexual trauma and suicide, as well as cherishing what we have and letting go of the past. The older Neha guides Neel how to let go and move on, and in doing so, she is released from her own hell as well.