KAPOOR & SONS – Movie Review

When I first saw the trailer of this movie, I felt this is just another Bollywood movie from DHARMA PRODUCTIONS, which would be more on the lines of Kabhie Khushi Kabhie Gham. I have never been a big fan of Bollywood movies, until recently, where they keep coming with brilliant biopics. And especially, if the movie involves KARAN JOHAR in any form, I am a bit skeptical – no offense – but I feel that his movies are way too dramatic and too sentimental – thereby losing the essence of the emotion.

                
So, I had no expectations out of this movie. Wanted to give it a shot though, as it had an interesting cast. By the end of the movie, I had moist eyes and I never expected that. I am glad that I didn’t miss to watch this movie in theatres. The story as such, is pretty simple - a sort of family gathering gone wrong and then regrouping once again. It’s not something which we haven’t seen in Hindi movies of the past. For that matter, down South, Telugu movies are famous for these kinds of stories and they are masters at that. The advantage of these kind of stories is that it gets an immediate connect with family audience, if presented realistically. And that’s what KAPOOR & SONS does. Right from the first frame till the last, there is not a single scene, which you can’t connect to.

There are certain superstitions when it comes to movies related to family – especially in Bollywood – no matter how big or small a family is, they are shown as staying in big palace with grand interiors and the characters dress as if they are attending FILMFARE awards function. And usually, in these movies, there will always be a plot written in such a way that a character dies so that the rest of the things fall in place – that is to say, a situation is forced in the story so that it can end on a good note.

KAPOOR & SONS breaks all these superstitions, with the exception of the last one thought, but even that too has been dealt with realistically. And there are at least a couple of twists, which I am sure people won’t see it coming. I don’t know from where to start to rate people’s acting. Let me start with RAJAT KAPOOR & RATNA PATHAK SHAH. They play the middle class couple, whom we see in our daily lives – argues for almost everything, but still stick together for the sake of family. They are just perfect. Superb performance. Next in line comes FAWAD KHAN & SIDDHARTH MALHOTRA. They play the couple’s elder and younger sons respectively. FAWAD easily tops the acting department and to be fair to SIDDHARTH, his character was written in such a way, that he plays the second fiddle throughout – but no complaints on the acting department. One might feel that there was no need for ALIA BHAT’s character in the movie, but it doesn’t hurt the overall feel. As always, she is mostly chirpy and carries off her role pretty easily. Last, but not the least, the veteran RISHI KAPOOR, who plays the dad of RAJAT KAPOOR. He plays the role of a cool grand dad – his age nearing century -  but still enjoys life.

The great aspect of this movie is – none of the situations are forced. Everything flows so naturally and each character has some sort of impact on the other – resulting in different emotions. Talking about emotions, it’s very overwhelming to see a BOLLYWOOD movie giving prominence to emotions than melodrama. This could have easily become a typical EKTA KAPOOR serial, but the director has steered away from unnecessary drama, but at the same time, managed to show the required emotions. I wish BOLLYWOOD keeps coming with these sorts of realistic movies once in a while.