Kapoor and Sons movie – a fine way to spend some time

Kapoor and Sons is an all-round treat for just about everyone.  It’s a family saga touched with romance which is totally credible and in many ways quite a Westernised method shows through in the handling and portrayal of the characters and scenes, including the non-traditional “costumes” and love themes.

When the family grandfather takes a turn for the worse the two brothers are invited to stay at the family home in the country to spend some time with him. Rishi Kapoor is entertaining in his handling of his descent into the ravages of very old age and even acts up by stunts like falling into his food or tripping on the floor with the remarks that he is simply practicing for the final curtain, which by the end of the story has still not come.

The brothers are not alike.  One is a successful novelist and the other thinks he had his own novel stolen by him so there’s some subterfuge interwoven into the story. As it turns out the idea was actually communicated through another source – the plot thickens!  They rub along fairly well and then the love interest shows up in the figure of Tia Singh played by the lively  Alia Bhatt.  She is a flirtatious scantily clad young lady who falls in love with one brother but kisses both neither knowing anything about the other one. Her own family story is tragic almost to the point of satire which she recants on her birthday to her beloved.

I don’t want to give too much of the story away as it would spoil your enjoyment of the film but Ratna Pathak who plays Mom is hopeful that her longstanding unhappy marriage will change while Rajat Kapoor – Dad is still busy sowing his wild oats elsewhere. Suffice it to say that the cheating Dad gets more than his come uppance as the story unfolds.

The style of filming, and the outfits the characters wear all add to the rather relaxed and intellectual way the audience reacts to the tale. It is highly modern and injects a lot of comic interludes into the story to keep it flowing in a light and entertaining mode.  Unlike some Indian films there are no gangsters to speak of and not so many dance scenes, though there are some and I know the audiences love and wait for them eagerly.

This might even translate to the stage due to its high emotional charge and the twists and turns involving the psyches of the cast who have drama, humour, compulsion and gravitas in their make up.  Enjoy.

Penny Nair Price