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The Mehta Boys Movie Review Rating:
Star Cast: Boman Irani, Avinash Tiwary, Shreya Chaudhry
Director: Boman Irani
What’s Good: A raw and real film about the bond of a father and son done right without any drama!
What’s Bad: The pace – It is slow and needs patience.
Loo Break: Not necessary, you can hold your bladder for 1.5 hours!
Watch or Not?: Definitely yes! But no, if you are a Jamal Kudu fan! If you know what I mean!
Language: Hindi
Available On: Prime Video
Runtime: 1-hour 35-minutes
User Rating:
What is the most complicated relationship in this entire Universe? A father and a son, without a doubt! In fact, a father and a son who are shielded enough to look strong and decisive enough! A father and a son, who shake hands because a hug might be way too awkward! A father and a son who might be two grown-up men but are merely stubborn and brat boys at heart! The Mehta Boys – features a stubborn father, played by Boman Irani, and a more stubborn son, Avinash Tiwary.
The film marks the directorial debut of Boman Irani, and it displays his expertise and skill set in the filmmaking world from the very first frame. Films are generally dramatized emotions and animated stories picked up as a reflection of society. But between these animated narrations and dramatized dialogue, most of the stories lose their charm and integrity!
The only ones who sail despite the drama are either termed a Masala film, a commercial film, or a better umbrella term for the films that are saved, which are ‘filmy’ stories! Others pass off as the ‘critic cinema’ or the parallel world! The Mehta Boys falls somewhere perfectly in between – the genre that passes off beautifully as commercial yet serious enough to have a conversation!
The Mehta Boys Movie Review: Script Analysis
The film takes some time to build up its premise. Avinash Tiwary plays the Mehta son, who is struggling in his office not to have a voice – underconfident to the level that even his boss cannot assure him that he is an asset and a talent they need! His girlfriend, played by Shreya Chaudhry from Bandish Bandits, has only one task – to push him till he makes it!
Then there is Boman Irani – the Mehta father, who is grieving the loss of his beloved wife. The inciting incident unwantedly brings the father and the son together and thus begins a journey of a relationship that has always been too formal. It is so formal that the father while thanking people at his home for coming to his wife’s funeral, thanks his son as well!
The tension in the relationship peeps through in the initial 10 minutes when the son arrives in Gujarat’s Navsari, his hometown from Mumbai, after getting the news of his mother’s passing away! While he is about to enter the room, his father dictates him to remove his shoes before entering the room.
However, the story turns its gears when the daughter, who acts as the bridge between the father and the son, decides to ‘parent-sit’ her father by making him shift to the USA. However, circumstances do not let that happen, and the father is forced to live with the son. Thus starts a never-seen-before relationship journey of two stubborn boys who eventually turn into men.
The Mehta Boys Movie Review: Star Performance
Avinash Tiwary, as Amay Mehta, and Boman Irani, as Shiv Mehta, fights an unsaid war stealing thunder from each other, but both of them eventually shine bright, making the film glow in some of the dull moments as well! Avinash Tiwary is the brooding protagonist who wants to be heard but is choked. He struggles to find a voice but cannot. Neither in his profession nor personally! So much so that when his sister reminds him of their father’s birthday after his mother’s demise, he struggles but fails to even wish him a Happy Birthday!
Shreya Chaudhry and Puja Sarup act as a balance beam between the two boys, who refuse to act like mature adults, giving their relationship a chance. In their limited presence, they makes sure to make each of her scenes, each of their dialogues, and each of their frames count!
Boman Irani is the showrunner as the senior Mehta. He is stubborn yet tries to surrender with age. First to, his daughter’s wish of uprooting him from his home and then co-existing with his son’s underperformed and restricted life where he does not want to take a chance. Boman speaks volumes as the aging father who is raw and real. There is not an iota of drama in this relationship, despite him wanting to pass all the love and affection he stores for his son!
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The Mehta Boys Movie Review: Direction
Boman Irani‘s directorial debut shines despite its low pace. He cuts the drama and builds each frame very intricately, keeping a reality check on the relationship and the world he builds! There are parts where the film struggles, but after each struggle, it turns out a winner, and Boman Irani owns this film, which he can proudly flaunt for the rest of his career. The film slowly builds up its premise and nurtures the relationship of a father and a son with each passing frame.
There are clear moments of sadness that instill you with grief. The first meal after the mother’s demise is when the three of them sit down at the dining table with one empty chair! It passes on the anxiety when a grieving husband has to leave his home and pack all that he can in a suitcase. How do you pack your entire life in a suitcase that should not weigh more than the permissible limits of an international flight?
The film infects you with the helplessness of a daughter who sees her father pack his entire life, but she does not have a choice. When do daughters have a choice? It makes you well up on the guilt the daughter is made to feel when her father asks her to tell her American address loudly to their locked ancestral home so that the soul of their mother knows where the husband is!
The film finally gives you hope when the son and the father start to unfold their relationship. It gives you a warmth that no matter how tough and hard life might be, family makes it worth living. And no matter how difficult family members might be, you always find a way to adjust!
The Mehta Boys Movie Review: The Last Word
Boman Irani’s The Mehta Boys is a blueprint on father-son relationships could be done in the right cinematic way. It is an anti-thesis to Piku, but equally beautiful. While Piku was a story about a daughter and a father sticking by each other and turning into a light-hearted charm that fills you with a void by the climax, The Mehta Boys does the same by the end but leaves you content. Despite the darkness, it gives you hope throughout.
The film could probably act as a masterclass on how to make a film on Papa, without saying Papa 2800 times in a single day. IYKYK!
4 stars!
The Mehta Boys Trailer
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The post The Mehta Boys Review Ft. Avinash Tiwary: Boman Irani’s Masterclass On How To Make A ‘Papa’ Film Without Chanting Papa 2800 Times A Day! appeared first on Koimoi.