Kapoor & Sons is the family drama Bollywood needed

We can pick our friends and lovers but not our parents. Try as hard as we may, truth is that we inherit behavioural traits from our family. You think you know your family inside out but you don’t. While watching Kapoor & Sons (Since 1921) those were some of the thoughts that crept into my head as the Kapoor sons – Rahul (Fawad Khan) and Arjun (Sidharth Malhotra) – arrive at their family abode in Coonoor.

The Kapoor family is nothing like the postcard-pretty and pleasant hill station where home is. In fact things are at boiling point. The cracks in the family are all too visible. Sunita (Ratna Pathak Shah) and Harsh (Rajat Kapoor) are a constantly bickering couple; she taunts him for his floundering career, he is unhappy with her demanding ways.

While the duo’s son Rahul is a successful author in London, the younger one Arjun is killing time as a bartender in New Jersey as he waits for his first novel to pass the publisher’s test. (The foreign locations assigned to the two young sons are one of the reminders that this is a Dharma film.)

The only person with joie de vivre in the Kapoor household is the naughty 90-year-old patriarch (Rishi Kapoor). Entry of a happy-go-lucky girl, Tia (Alia Bhatt), adds zing to the proceedings.    

Written by Shakun Batra and Ayesha Devitre Dhillon, who earlier collaborated on a romantic comedy with a twist Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu, Kapoor & Sons (Since 1921) is exactly the family drama that Bollywood needed. Audiences will be reminded of Zoya Akhtar’s Dil Dhadakne Do but unlike that film thankfully there is no wedding, no dysfunctional behaviour and the focus is on a middle class family whose troubles and woes feel real and not overblown issues. It’s one of reasons why Kapoor and Sons resonates with audiences.

Rahul is the “perfect bachcha” as evident by the immaculately kept room he returns to in Coonoor. Much like Monica from Friends who always felt she wasn’t loved as much as her elder sibling Ross, Arjun thinks he has always been “second best”. Arjun’s room is taken over by his mother and is now home to a gym cycle.

While Rahul is playing peacemaker, trying to finish his novel, talking to his bae on phone and also finding a property to build an artists’ retreat, Arjun here spends most time wooing Tia and cracking jokes with Dadu. His novel’s draft arrives – so real is Kapoor & Sons that Air India misplaces Arjun’s baggage – but he isn’t bothered. Of the family, Rahul feels the more defined character and the uberdapper and more talented Fawad Khan gives him much depth.  

It’s when Batra and Dhillon are looking into the details that Kapoor & Sons impresses most. Boobli the wrestler is a memorable little character. IPapad, Dadu’s lingo for iPad, drew laughs. The Mandakini wet sari cut out was a lovely, amusing touch. So was the lollipop as change and an apology. The innumerable mention of “potty” is very much a Punjabi thing. The wrecked car could be a metaphor for the broken family. 

The rendition of “Chand Se Mehbooba Ho Meri” at a family get together is the welcomed temporary balm to the scars.

Also read: 12 Indian films you can't miss in 2016

One of the film’s best lines is given to a supporting character. In a key scene in which the family is about to have its family portrait clicked, an angry Arjun stands apart from Rahul.

“India Pakistan ke border ke liye jagah chodi hai kya?” says the photographer-friend. It’s a poignant statement made more so relevant given the real national identities of Khan and Malhotra. It’s with such subtle moments that Batra and Dhillon make what could have been yet another family saga so meaningful.    

Kapoor & Sons (Since 1921) isn’t a flawless film. The cross cutting between dramatic scenes doesn’t always work, the songs are superfluous, and Tia despite Alia’s best efforts feels like a convenient, crowd-pleasing filler than an integral part of the film. But one can’t overlook the film’s strengths.

“I can’t apologise for who I am,” says Rahul to his mother. Humans are fallible creatures. And there is no such thing as a perfect family. 

We all have secrets. Once they gradually, and predictably, come out in Kapoor & Sons, things fall apart. But then you accept people for who they are and learn to forgive and forget and move on. After all, family matters.