Kapoor & Sons

TWO SISTERS come home for the impending marriage of one of them. The family is close but there are unresolved issues from the past. There are lies and resentment. Parental love is perceived as not evenly divided. The camera is mobile, accompanying the characters as they interact with each other, giving us the impression of a film shot in real time. This is Jonathan Demme’s Rachel Getting Married (2008). Kapoor & Sons has a remarkably similar theme and shooting style. It is about two brothers coming home to the family home in Coonoor to see their ailing grandad who is to celebrate his birthday. The lively and cantankerous ‘Dadu’ (Rishi Kapoor) would like to see his brood, which he fondly calls ‘Kapoor & Sons (since 1921)’, unite on that day in mythical harmony.

Unfortunately, the siblings are Indian novelists writing in English and their mother (Ratna Pathak) has actually aided Rahul Kapoor (Fawad Khan) in plagiarising from the work of Arjun Kapoor (Sidharth Malhotra). It is not clear if this is a veiled comment on the literary merit of our writers and the enthusiasm of foreign publishing houses —shown in the film to offer heftier advance and easy praise—or just a casual parallel the filmmaker is making between lifting ideas from books and films, perhaps condoning both.

In between, we have the brothers apparently attracted to the same girl (Alia Bhatt), a cheerful young thing who has had her own share of family unhappiness. The idea in Kapoor & Sons is to say that all families are essentially complicated and that a search for honesty in relationships within brings catharsis, but it also opens the scabs of festering wounds. Which is why a lot of families choose to suppress similar, unresolved issues. There is no judgement passed on any character in the film, and this is a relief from the usual melodrama in family movies. The film is absorbing up to a point, but sputters after you get the general drift.

About The Author

Ajit Duara