Love Mocktail 2020

Aadi, a software engineer, rescues Aditi from a group of goons and agrees to drop her home since he’s headed to her hometown, Udupi. During the journey, Aditi asks about his romantic history, and he begins a long, candid look back at the chapters that shaped his heart from school days to the present.

The story unfolds in a series of reflective vignettes that trace Aadi’s evolving view of love, ambition, and hardship. In his high school years, he harbors a crush on a girl from his tuition, Reema, but a social/relation dynamic looms large: a friend approaches Reema, yet she rejects him, her decision colored by her parents’ failed marriage. The memory hints at the fragility of young affections and the fear of repeating painful patterns.

When he moves on to engineering college, he meets Joshita “Jo,” a girl from a well-to-do family who genuinely loves him but carries doubts about whether he can provide the lifestyle she’s accustomed to. In an effort to reassure her, Aadi joins an IT company after completing school, hoping that professional stability will bridge their different worlds. Yet the pressures around Jo—especially parental expectations and his perceived income—strain the relationship, and Jo ultimately breaks up with him.

The narrative then shifts to Nidhi’s entrance into his life. At work, Nidhi is a fellow software employee whose down-to-earth warmth stands in contrast to the turbulence of his past relationships. After his heartbreak with Jo, his friends Vijay and Sushma help set him up with Nidhi, and the connection grows into a steady, meaningful partnership. Nidhi’s kindness and steadiness gradually soften Aadi, helping him see love in a more hopeful light. The turning point comes when Jo tries to re-enter his life on her birthday, and Aadi realizes that his deeper feelings are for Nidhi.

The couple’s bond deepens as they marry and build a life together that feels both happy and peaceful. However, happiness faces a cruel test when Nidhi becomes pregnant, only to suffer a miscarriage that saps her strength and heralds a battle with ovarian cancer. Despite Aadi’s hopeful efforts and unwavering support, Nidhi’s illness progresses, and she passes away, leaving him shattered and hollow yet haunted by the weight of shared memories and unspoken promises.

In the present timeline, Aadi walks Aditi through the grave of Nidhi, a quiet, intimate moment that crystallizes the film’s meditation on loss, memory, and the idea that life continues even after devastating sorrow. The journey ends with Aadi driving Aditi home, a gentle, steadying act that signals both an ending and a quiet, persistent hope.

Throughout this emotional arc, the film threads themes of love’s resilience, the compromises demanded by family expectations, and the way one person’s warmth can reshape another’s path. The memory-laden storytelling uses the past as a lens to understand the present, showing how Aadi’s relationships—both lost and found—collectively sculpt the man we watch at the wheel in the final scene.