Directed By Shakun Batra (Director of the spitefully underrated Ekk Main Aur Ekk Tu, and the viral YouTube video called Alia Bhatt: Genius Of the Year), Kapoor and Sons, is an important story told with a tinge of fun and humor.
The first thing that you'll notice about Kapoor and Sons is the fact that it's extremely visually appealing. I'm not aware if there were people other than the cinematographer involved in making this happen but the combinations of colors at any point of time on screen is just perfect. It's almost as if a graphic designer was given the camera. The result is a movie that's hard to take eyes off.
Set in the idyllic town of Coonoor (Tamil Nadu), Kapoor and Sons is a story of a regular family, with some skeletons in their closet. As the story proceeds, we're given more details about each of the characters. The narrative just dives in deep with everyone here, giving a microscopic view of all the members of the Kapoors. The movie reminded me of the short play in our English Textbooks that'd generally give a third person's view into a family, panning out every basic task in meek details, basically getting us familiar or acquainted with the members, and this is something that Kapoor and Sons, couldn't have worked without. To get a grasp of the entire story, it's important here to know each and every character pretty well, and it comes as no surprise that the screenplay takes its own time to take off, and once it does (pretty late into the second half), it just shoots off from there. And to be honest, yes, Kapoor and Sons has some of the finest actors of the country and yes, the direction is brilliant but the biggest strength of Kapoor and Sons is its screenplay. There have been about 4-5 movies on similar topics in the last year itself, and very few capture the essence of the family drama, this well.
Like I said before, Kapoor and Sons has one of the finest star cast to support its story. And it comes as no surprise that there's not even a single under performer. Rajat Kapoor, Ratna Shah and Siddharth Malhotra lead the pack here. They leave a lasting impression. Kapoor and Shah, shine in their constant banter. Rishi Kapoor does a great job too as he gets along with the heavy makeup pretty well. Alia Bhatt in her little role is amazing. Her character is extremely difficult to pull of, as its one that's easiest to forget Because it's of so little consequence in the end but Bhatt delivers an extremely nuanced performance, and to be honest I was expecting that from her, after how well she did in Highway, this looked like a walk in the park. But it's Fawad Khan who's surprisingly amazing. He is effortless and earnest in the extremely complex role he's given. I can think of few actors who could have pulled of such a performance as Fawad did.
Where Kapoor and Sons didn't work for me though, is the parts where it tries to be too cool. Rishi Kapoor's character has this tendency to pull out some or the other random tidbit, which is intended to get a 'Woah! That's cool' reaction but instead it ends up feeling forced and unnecessary. The same goes for some of the humor that runs through in the barrage of conversations this movie has, it sounds pretty forced and is hardly funny. There's this constant swing between uber realistic conversation that works very well and this fake plasticky chatter or hyperbolic actions that just weren't needed. The result is pretty much an okeyish first half. The biggest problem is the fact that these are the only minute issues with an otherwise amazing movie, making them stick out like a sore thumb.
On the whole, Kapoor and Sons is a great movie that's got much more than it appears at a glance. Minor issues aside It's a family drama worth watching.
Rating : ***½ (Don't miss this)
