Kapoor & Sons (2016)

Shakun batra's earlier film ek main aur ek tu is a feel good film with a climax which is least expected from Bollywood movies . but with kapoor and sons he has gone much ahead of his previous film because here the scenes are not constructed to look good , it is from the heart .
The film starts off slowly making us to root for the characters in the first half but the real film unfolds in the second half revealing the mysteries everyone holds in the family but the good thing is that even after all the revelations the film doesn't go overboard and keeps things simple as would be in life and there the film scores even it touches a tinge of melodrama to wrap up things and the film really falls there .
Even if the film falls it is the cast which hold the film . rishi kapoor as the lovely dadu provides the comic relief but the prosthetics could have been better , alia though gets more screen time than her character is supposed to have , her character doesn't appear to be forced because she makes tia likeable , siddharth though not entirely convincing is not bad at all but could have been better , rajat kapoor is falwless and fawad is nothing short of perfect especially he scores a lot in second half and I think the finest performance is from the most under utilised actress , rathna pathak shah who is high in form as the betrayed wife and mother with guilt .
Finally kapoor and sons gives us a fresh family drama which doesn't try to be so sweet but yet heart warming and makes us a part of the family with its nuanced writing such as the plumber scene . with kapoor and sons Bollywood has also move ahead in the beated to death genre of family dramas .

Going by the trailers of Kapoor and Sons, one would have expected this to be a mediocre family drama that provides the setting for a predictable love triangle involving the protagonists. After all, stories about dysfunctional families are not uncommon in Bollywood. Furthermore, love triangles, have also been done to death ,so what’s novel after all? A couple of foot- tapping songs and what we have is the recipe for yet another ”family entertainer”. Another instance of old wine in a new bottle !!!!! Yawn !!!

My friend, if this is what you have been thinking, you are mistaken. Big time !

While Kapoor and Sons is actually about a dysfunctional family, what makes it different is the treatment and the vulnerability of all the members associated with it. Be it the henpecked husband who is trying hard to manage his finances, the bickering wife who aspires to start her catering business, a seemingly happy son , his neglected brother and above all , the patriarch of the family, who in spite of his sprightly nature and a wicked sense of humor yearns for a complete family photograph.

Set in Coonnoor, the movie starts with the our dearest grandpa feigning yet another heart attack ( I wish Rishi Kapoor’s prosthetics could have been better) , only to actually suffer one minutes later . The next scene very predictably introduces us to his grandsons, one, a bestselling author who has just made a fortune out of his latest book and his brother, a struggling writer who is still trying to get his first book published. Between the two, there are issues which seem to surface in a subtle manner , when their parents indulge in petty quarrels and they inadvertently get dragged into them. And , to add to this, a beautiful girl, who in a drunken stupor kisses one of them but falls in love with the other. (Somehow, the party song involving Alia and Siddharth, though foot tapping manages to stand out like a sore thumb.)
By now if you start raising questions about the predictability or unpredictability of the plot , I suggest you just sit back and watch the rest of the movie. Because, the sequences post interval are sure to make you guilt ridden for judging the book by its cover as some of the best scenes are yet to follow. And mark my words, the proceedings in the second half might surround you with melancholy or make you moist eyed.

If Fawad Khan’s brooding face in Khoobsurat made him the heartthrob of many, his composed performance was something which impressed me more than that of Sonam Kapoor who went overboard with her histrionics. Here, he gets ample scope to perform and I should say that he seems to be a gem in the making, one of those few actors of today who shows signs of being immensely talented with breathtakingly good looks that are an added advantage. He is absolutely outstanding in the climax when he confesses a dark secret of his life to his mother who stares at him shell shocked. Siddharth Malhotra does well but Fawad manages to steal the thunder from him. Alia Bhat does well in a role which does not seem to be meaty when compared to that of the male protagonists. Ratna Pathak Shah and Rajat Kapoor have given an impressive performance. Rishi Kapoor goes slightly overboard as the free spirited dadu but he is the one who brings the house down. His fascination for Mandakini is bound to keep viewers in splits.
Full marks to Shakun Batra for helming a family drama which does not give a sense of “déjà vu”but conveys the message that it’s better to face harsh realities of our lives than run away from them. Go for it.