Kapoor & Sons

Firstly what led me to this movie.....

A friend had called and said, 'there's so much reality in that film, it's pretty fascinating and scary how close to the truth they come, and so unassumingly and easily ..... we're not used to seeing reality, the drama without the melodrama, in normal Hindi cinema.'

          

And two episodes were quoted; one about 'how she's a good mother and how she even does wrong by one son to help another, because she thinks the younger son can manage and older son needs the help'. (and I was left wondering how that makes a good mother) .

And second was this conversation between the two brothers, 'one saying "bro, the two mattresses that have been separated, you realize what that means? mom and dad are using two separate rooms !!" and the younger one saying..."chill bro, if you live with dad for twenty five years, you want to use another room." 

It had my curiosity piqued.

The family is the dada (Rishi Kapoor), the father (Rajat Kapoor), the mother (Ratna Patak Shah), Fawad Khan as the elder son and Siddharth Malhotra as the younger.

The two brothers, one living in New York and one in London, (one an aspiring writer and the other a published writer), visit their family home in Coonoor, when their dada has a heart attack......only to realize that their parents marriage is on the verge of collapse, the family is in a deep financial crisis, and it's full on family drama as each story unfolds and the brothers stories get added into the fold. There's a lot of underlying non acceptance and bitterness, squabbles and fights..... and I could have so easily used the word 'dysfunctional'. But then is it really....or is it just way more common than we're willing to admit.

And sure....each of those situations and emotions seems overly dramatic, but then it's only because its entire lifetimes issues crammed into two hours and twenty minutes.

Then the energy, the bonding, the hopes, the possibilities all exist to give you a high energy space.

Real kudos to the director, writer, editor and all others involved; they've done an amazing job in giving each of the main characters equally strong space in the film.  And where normally films have a conflict built and a happy resolution following, this one leaves things in natural flow.

Ratna Patak as a jealous and tired housewife,  her strong expectations from her 'perfect' older son, and how she faces the issues there.... beautifully emoted.

Rajat Kapoor as always.......quiet, dignified, serious, intelligent. I think I've had a long time crush on him.

Fawad khan as the perfect elder child, responsible and controlled, is the simmering volcano. Tired under all the expectations and pressure of having to live a lie....and you expect only controlled outbursts, but you realize each one has their own threshold.

Siddharth as a easy flowing, fun loving guy..... yet this deep anxiety within, and it surfaces on short fuse...but he's yet so loveable.

Alia Bhatt in her teeny hep attire is smart, slick and adorable, total eye candy, and brings a lot of zing onto the screen...and it's still not out of place even in laid back Coonoor, as she's a Mumbai pori.

And yes, not to forget the porn loving grandpa, who while enjoying mandakini on the ipad, has this last desire of getting a happy family group photograph. He was a riot...at times overdone...but yet a lot of laughs.

It's an emotional roller coaster, a term I love to use. The base is solid, but the surface is all the excitement.....there's tears, there's joy, there's strong chemistry, even between the brothers who at points seem to feel raw hatred, but it's an interesting dynamic, shared so easily over a joint. (the openness with which they did weed surprised the hypocrite in me)

Like I read somewhere..it's about the chaos of relationships, yet with an underlying stability.

I loved the spontaneity, the lack of pretense and the flow ......an overall wonderfully made film.