A reminiscent of the
American tv series 'Brothers and Sisters, revolving around the lives,
relationships and conflicts of the wealthy Walker family , Kapoor and Sons too
showcases almost the same issues in a near-perfect nuanced manner. If Mira
Nair’s 'Monsoon Wedding' had more complex characters to deal with within their
far in-depth complexities, Shakun Batra’s protégés are quite easy to relate to,
at least in today’s present scenario. Director Shakun Batra in his second
outing Kapoor & Sons quite delicately breaks the year long ‘perfect son’/
‘perfect brother’ Bollywood stereotype. One couldn’t have imagined one of the
brothers (Sanjay dutt or Salman khan) in the 1991 blockbuster Saajan claiming
his disinterest in women, or rather, the much celebrated, commercial potboiler
Kabhie Khushi Kabhi Gham, I am sure wouldn’t have been a success if either of
the brothers (Rahul or Rohit) had an unconventional lifestyle or sexual
preference which is fry cry from the sentiments of the majority of the Indian
mindsets.
The brothers here In Kapoor & Sons do not bond with ease, neither
they share a Jai-Veeru bonding, much at loggerheads with each other and that
has been brought forth very conveniently into the narrative without seeming
forced or melodramatic. Arjun (Sidharth Kapoor) the younger one whose career
isn’t that bright and shining unlike his elder brother Rahul (Fawad Khan),
whose career as a novelist got doomed long back when his mother handed his idea
of a story plot to his brother without his knowledge, he isn’t too eager to
receive his brother’s call or take his help financially because he has always
been looked down upon as the ‘second best’ when compared to his ‘perfect’ elder
brother. His constant trying to prove his mettle to his family has brewed the
bitterness inside him against his brother. Neither he is emphasizing on his
brother’s unconventional lifestyle when the latter finally discloses the same
(‘I don’t know what to say’ is all Arjun has to answer).On the other hand the
mother’s (Ratna Pathak Shah) favourite child, the perfect son Rahul, who comes
as a savior during all family disputes, financial setbacks & is the one to
take all the blame upon himself to avoid his family from dragging on to their
conflicts, isn’t all that perfect anymore because of his inability or rather,
unwillingness to bring home the ‘perfect indian bride’, but we know deep down,
as we see their story unfold, that they are their for each other at the end of
the day because as the plot unfolds we see the ‘imperfect-ness’ among all the
characters, characters which are very real, very close to us, characters very
‘perfectly’ etched out by Shakun Batra & co-writer Ayesha Devitre.
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