The spiky relationship between a father-and-son, which shapes the narrative in ‘The Mehta Boys’, leads us to predict a resolution in which things will get better. The theme has that familiar predictive tilt built into it, but what lifts ‘The Mehta Boys’ are the little spurts of unpredictability built into the script of Boman Irani’s directorial debut.
That, and the performances, which are all pitch perfect.
You know that Boman Irani will inhabit Shiv Mehta without a degree of separation, the actor’s suavity giving way to his elderly character’s slightly-bent-shoulders, mostly-lost-after-the-death-of-his-wife situation. No surprise there, because Irani’s irascible, eccentric Parsi gent is an amalgam of the many Shivs he, and we, may have encountered: this is his territory, and he revels in it.
The junior Mehta boy, Amay (Avinash Tiwary) lives in Mumbai, and has been trying to hack it as an architect under the benign but demanding eye of the owner of the firm (Siddharth Basu). As the son who left home but hasn’t still found his feet, either at his workplace or in his ramshackle flat, Tiwary is, as always, very good.
The Mehta Boys movie trailer:
Co-worker-cum-girlfriend Zara (Shreya Chaudhry) displays the mixture of affection and exasperation smart women adopt when faced with a man who will not, or cannot, do the thing he needs to, to get where he wants to. Shiv’s US-based daughter Anu (Puja Sarup), understandably wary of the tensions between her father and brother, shows up briefly only to depart, leaving the two men to their devices. Can they fake it till they make it?
These pushes and pulls come to the fore as the tale, written by Irani and Alexander Dinelaris, progresses. While the writing is on point, things get constricted in a few places, making the film lose a bit of its fluidity. You wish those scenes had been given more breathing time. At a crucial point, Mehta Sr looks out from the balcony of Mehta Jr’s flat, shaking his head at all the ‘glass and steel’, and you know that the phrase will come up for air when the latter’s grasp and reach finally meet.
But those are minor niggles. In all the duds that Bollywood is serving up these days, ‘The Mehta Boys’, which looks at daddy issues with understanding and empathy, and the things that make relationships tick, and stick, is well worth your time.
The Mehta Boys movie cast: Boman Irani, Avinash Tiway, Shreya Chaudhry, Puja Sarup, Siddharth Basu
The Mehta Boys movie director: Boman Irani
The Mehta Boys movie rating: 3.5 stars
