‘Kapoor & Sons’ comes to town

By Aijaz Gul
March 22, 2016

Big Screen

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Islamabad

Director, Co-Writer: Shakun Batra

Producer: Karan Johar

Cast: Rishi Kapoor, Sidharth Malhotra, Fawad Khan, Aaliya Bhatt, Ratna Pathak, Rajat Kapoor

Dharma Productions' 'Kapoor & Sons' released this Friday has been received well at the box-office. Producer Karan Johar, under Dharma Productions, has directed filmson his ownas well ashired directors for his banner. However, his personal stamp is evident on all Dharma productions. 'Kapoor & Sons' too has Karan Johar's stamp evident with high production effects and state-of-the art technique (camera, sound, editing, and art direction).

Leaving technical brilliance and productioneffects aside, let us get into the plotand more into characters because that matters mostin Kapoor & Sons. The cast is lead by Rishi Kapoor who lives with son (Rajat Kapoor) and daughter-in-law (Ratna Pathak) in a decent house on hill station Cooner. Rishi Kapoor has been made to look over ninety years and hisalmost believable makeup was done by an expert from abroad. Rishi'stwo grandchildren Fawad Khan and Sidharth Malhotra, return from abroad to be withRishiKapoorwho has had a heart attack and is now in ICU.

Having explainedall about family, it is now time that familycloset is opened, secrets be revealed, and familybickering and inadequaciesbe brought on the table, one by one. Advance heart treatment for Rishi is due in Bangalore but that is not what Rishi wants. He wants family portraits and be later buried (not cremated) in an army cemetery where most of his friends are resting.

The purpose of this long introduction is not to revealdetails of the plot .We mustget to know the complexity of the characters. All thisfollows and remains withus long after the screening is over. And that you must believe in them is best part of 'Kapoor & Sons'.

Director Shakun Batra (in league with Karan Johar)takes on the characters and family incidentsas prime priority. And all the characters, too many of them, shine all the way from beginning to the last frame (Rishi Kapoor in lead). From reel to real life, none of us are perfect and we live with our insecurities. And if that is the case, why should once expect Kapoor's family to be perfect. The ills, depravity, guilt,, wrongdoings and vices are part of every family. The mother (Ratna Pathak) and father (Rajat Kapoor) are not in best terms with each other. In fact, they would even outburst at each other before the plumber who is fixing the sink. And that is not all. Rajat's girlfriend appears on grandfather's birthday. Rajat later admits that he has been meeting her for almost a year now. And since his admission can't make the household any better (even after some warmth in the bedroom), he smashes his car in afatal road accident. Returning to the kids is not any better. Sidharth has never settled and has moved from place to place, largely unemployed, but he has the nerves to get into romantic liaison with Aalyia Bhatt, who appears here in an extended extra role, without contributing the script (or to the familyin crisis). Now we are left with Fawad Khan. His insecurities are deeper which he can't even reveal to himself or to his family. The director-writerhas scripted his rolein a subtle manner. When themotherfinds out the intimaciesbetween Fawad and his male partners on laptop, those moments are best part of the film. The mother tells him” you were my perfect son" Fawad replies "I am what I am. Before criticizing me, whydidn’tyou save your own marriage! I just want you to love me for who I am ". It is now time for reconciliation. And even though there have been too many family portraits, everyone comes together, once again, for yet another portrait (this time with a large cut-out of Rajat Kapoor, who now must be resting in the heaven).

'Kapoor & Sons' is almost a perfect character study. And even with severalpeople around, the director has managed to give them their required and equal space. All of them seemreal and close to us .This is a biggest achievement of the film

The party, and later birthday bash sequences, are too long and needed brisk editing. The filmwith a powerful character-study hardly needed any music (Read: songs) The music usedhere is not at par with the film's brilliance.

aijazzgulgmail.com

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