The Mehta Boys: Of fathers and sons
Relationships form the crux of human lives. How we engage with others and how we react to situations that arise from these interactions largely define who we are. Art, in all its forms, often seeks to explore the complexities of relationships that lend themselves to innumerable stories and interpretations. One relationship that is often fraught with tension, that of a father and son, is at the center of Boman Irani’s directorial debut, The Mehta Boys, on Amazon Prime.
Unlike Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Animal, a superficial and gory take on father-son issues, The Mehta Boys explores this relationship’s complicated dynamics and eloquently lays out the pain and trauma of a fragile bond.
A Slice of Life
After the death of their mother, siblings Amay Mehta (Avinash Tiwary) and Anu Mehta Patel (Puja Sarup) rush to their childhood home and their father, Shiv Mehta (Boman Irani). After the funeral, it is decided that Shiv will move to the U.S. with his daughter. However, the airline ends up upsetting their plans and Shiv’s travel has to be postponed by two days. At Anu’s behest, Amay agrees to host his father for the period. The father and son, who haven’t had a proper conversation in years, find themselves butting heads and getting on each other’s nerves.
This is a human story about grief and love. Of minor misunderstandings. Of the pain and guilt of both unsaid words and those spoken in a moment of rage. This is a story of closure, of understanding ourselves and those around us. This is a story of every household.
Irani delivers as writer, director & actor
Along with his co-writer, Academy-award winning screenwriter Alexander Dinelaris, director Boman Irani presents a heartfelt script, which is delivered by a capable cast and crew. Irani as the stubborn and sometimes crotchety Shiv puts forth a flawless performance. He is believable when he refuses to allow a much younger Amay carry his bags up the stairs, adamantly climbing them himself even as it leaves him winded. He conveys Shiv’s heartbreak with absolute finesse when he realizes that some of the bill at a restaurant, which he wanted to cover, had already been paid for. The scene where he gets into a fight with his son was well executed, both as an actor and as a director.
Avinash Tiwary, for the most part, does a brilliant job. Amay’s grief, heartbreak, uncertainty, frustration, anger, and panic, are all conveyed with subtle body language. When Shiv switches off the light, despite Amay saying that he likes it on, the silent, frustrated sigh is relatable. He goes toe-to-toe with the much senior Irani in the fight scene.
The two women, Puja Sarup as Amay’s sister Anu, and Shreya Chaudhury as Zara, Amay’s love interest and colleague, play small but important roles. As the older sibling, Anu is the glue that holds the family together after their mother’s passing. However, she finds the task daunting as Amay and Shiv dig their heels in, trying their best not to spend time with each other. Stressed to her limit, Anu loses it, and Puja is pitch-perfect in the scene where she pretty much forces the father and son to make it together for the two days. Shreya is adequate in her role but isn’t exceptional.
When the atmospherics tell a story
The thing that stood out to me, from a technical standpoint, was the difference between the two houses. The first house is the one Shiv calls home; where he has memories of his wife, his children and a whole life lived. This house is brightly lit, spotless and vibrant. The bed sheets are perfectly laid, the curtains bright, the kitchen clean, bougainvillea climbing on the sides and on the roof. In stark contrast is Amay’s apartment in the city. It’s dark and unkempt, with a leaking, crumbling roof, except for his closet, where his neatly ironed shirts hang in pristine perfection.
Shiv’s home is warm and welcoming, while Amay’s apartment is claustrophobic and impersonal, thanks to Payal Ghose’s production design.
The costumes by Daena Sethna also deserve a mention. They are simple, in keeping with the times, the economic conditions, and the personalities of the characters. This isn’t a movie where our leading man is dressed in the snazziest of outfits. He’s an architect who is struggling to find his footing. He dresses like a regular office-goer and that’s the best part of it.
Baggage in a relationship
The Mehta Boys tells a story about a father-son duo who have let resentment creep in. The distance between them seems insurmountable. However, there is no one mitigating reason for the chasm. Instead, it is a culmination of many small events that have occurred over the years. It’s a familiar story. All of us have either lived it, or seen it play out in some shape or form around us. The result is that even an innocuous statement like “typewriters have become obsolete” becomes a loaded one where they see insinuations that probably were never made. Often, it results in the kind of explosive fight that Shiv and Amay have after their car crashes into a lamppost.
The Mehta Boys shows us that anger and resentment is easy to build. The challenge is to understand, accept, and love someone for who they are and not what we think they should be.
Where it almost slipped…
While an enjoyable movie, it wasn’t without its flaws. The biggest one is the monologue by Amay (Avinash Tiwary) at the end. It felt as though Avinash wasn’t fully on board with the dialogues. The monologue seemed contrived and, frankly, not needed. It suddenly veers into what Indian architecture is about and why blindly aping Western architecture isn’t wise. I admit that there was a build-up to this monologue, but it was nowhere nearly as effective or powerful for it to be the climax of the story.
The film is almost two hours long; the runtime could have been shortened.
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