Daddy issues are not new to Bollywood. Think films as mainstream as K3G and as middle-of-the-road as Udaan to Ranbir Kapoor’s universe of dad-given-angst—be it Wake Up Sid or the more controversial Animal. Some are formulaic, some more nuanced, but through them it’s clear, we love a good father-son drama. Boman Irani’s The Mehta Boys, currently streaming on Prime Video, can firmly be placed within this genre, but in a subtle, slow burn way, exploring the real complexities of the father-son dynamic zone. This is the veteran actor’s directorial debut, which he’s also co-written and stars in. An affectionate, observational, and emotive drama—the roles of the distanced Mehta boys have been earnestly performed by Irani as the senior, Shiv Mehta, and Avinash Tiwary as his diffident son, Amay Mehta.
A microcosm of a modern family—the Mehtas comprise a daughter living in the US, a son pursuing a career as an architect in Mumbai, and ageing parents, who have been living a quiet life in a small town. After the loss of the mother, the estranged Mehta boys are forced to spend a weekend together in Amay’s modest Mumbai apartment. Simmering generational and familial tensions come to a boil between father and son, but not in a big cinematic outburst, in small, intimate, heart-wrenching moments.
Irani says he took years to ready this script. “The story unfolds simply.” But simplicity is easier said than achieved on screen. He reminds me of a scene where the father meets his son’s girlfriend for the first time: “They are flawed people who are uneasy with each other. When his prospective daughter-in-law comes to dinner, Shiv (the father) seems to be the nicest guy. The son even sees his father’s charming side at dinner but in the next beat, the bill arrives and the moment is lost. Even after the father has said three times that he will pay, the son has undermined him. That’s where the writing comes in.” On the other hand, the father’s trust issues are captured brilliantly in another scene where he firmly clutches the handbrake while his son is driving. As the son protests for control (and safety), the handbrake becomes a symbol of the shifting power dynamics of the father-son relationship.
Both the writing and Irani’s direction score in what’s said as well as in what is left unsaid. For instance, when Amay realises he has forgotten an important occasion, you wait for the boy to make things right with his father. Instead, the awkwardness rests in the silence that follows—it subtly captures the discomfort men have expressing themselves and in revealing their emotional vulnerability. These feelings come together beautifully when the airport farewell trope is turned to spotlight two grown men bidding goodbye; having said some things, but leaving most important things unsaid. After all, the fault-lines can’t be healed in 48 hours.
There’s no dearth of Hindi films that have delved into the emotional complexities between fathers and their offspring, deconstructing the proverbial daddy issues into relationships that are beyond hierarchies and tropes. In Shoojit Sircar’s Piku (2015) Amitabh Bachchan portrays the crotchety, hypochondriac father who is aging, stubborn, and dependent, but still has a deep emotional bond with his daughter Piku (Deepika Padukone). In Homi Adajania’s Angrezi Medium (2020), Advait Chandan’s Secret Superstar (2017), and Nitesh Tiwari’s Dangal (2016), fathers are the figures who push their children to success, but also undergo personal growth as they evolve in their understanding of parenting. Sircar, the filmmaker who has unofficially mastered the dysfunctional-functional family drama insists that “humour, joy and tears go together” when exploring these dynamics and relationships.
In The Mehta Boys, the father-child dynamic is far from the traditional, authoritative figures to multi-faceted, emotionally complex characters. Flawed just like their children, the new Bollywood fathers go beyond the unidimensional figure to grapple with personal challenges, and even experiencing their own coming of age, like Shiv Mehta, does in his twilight years.
The Mehta Boys is currently streaming on Prime Video
