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Review: Happy Family Conditions Apply (Web Series)

As someone said "There’s nothing that makes you more insane than family, or more happy, or more exasperated, or more secure." True to this statement, no family is completely happy or 100% perfect. It is a mix of every emotion that binds everyone in the family together. At the end, family is family!!!

The web series Happy Family Conditions Apply portrays the same. This Hindi language series is directed and produced by film-makers Jamnadas Majethia and Aatish Kapadia of the Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai fame; and the star cast includes seasoned actors like Raj Babbar, Ratna Pathak Shah, Atul Kulkarni, Ayesha Jhulka in key roles, supported by Raunaq Kamdar, Meenal Sahu, Sanah Kapur etc. This is one of the titles Amazon Prime India announced in April last year. 

Unlike other series, Amazon released only the first 4 episodes of Happy Family on the 10th March 2023 and went on to air the remaining 6 episodes, 2 episodes on every Friday, with the last 2 released on 31st Mar. It is a family comedy entertainer, which revolves around the lives of Dholakias, a Gujarathi family of four generations, living in a joint family set up. This series presents how messy families are, how each individual is different and how everyone is held together in the family, despite different personalities. 

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Manuskhlal Dholakia (Raj Babbar) and Hemlatha Dholakia (Ratna Pathak Shah) have two sons - Ramesh (Atul Kulkarni) and Suresh (Atul Kumar) and a daughter Falu. Ramesh is a chemist, married to Pallavi (Ayesha Jhulka) and has two children - Sanjouy and Ayushi. Sanjouy is married to Tisca, a fashion designer by profession and together have a kid. In a family outing, Sanjouy informs that he has purchased a new flat and will be moving out of the house soon, the decision leaving Ramesh heart broken. Sooner the family is shaken up with another discovery that Suresh, residing in US married a Kenyan-American in Las Vegas much to the disapproval of Hemlatha. As we navigate through the episodes, we witness how disoriented everyone in the family is and their relationships are.

Star ensemble is perfect and so are their performances. Raj Babbar true to a head of the family is the back bone of the Dholakias and identifies and resolves the issues, as they creep in. Ratna Pathak Shah, who garnered a special fan base for her role in Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai has been perfect in the role of Baa - stereotypical, dramatic and hilarious. She is definitely the show stealer of this series. Atul, Ayesha and the rest are just apt for their role and performed per the character's demand. Of course, one will definitely feel that not every actor's potential is fully utilized. That's true especially with Atul, as we know how great a performer he is. 

The director wanted to bring in a wholesome family drama onto the screen, while trying to recreate the magic of his past successful sitcom. He has nearly succeeded in delivering a story loaded with slapstick comedy and family emotions, without any vulgarity or zero violence, which are the loaded in today's world of so called entertainment. Happy Family is the story of the family who are a little bit crazy, a little bit loud and full of love for each other!!!

After my recent experience of watching disastrous and hopeless movies and series especially those like Rana Naidu, where I couldn't stand even 10 minutes of the first episode, Happy Family with a lighter subject, hilarious comedy, wholesome drama and entertainment, is a good and must watch; of course conditions apply*. 

* Well, this series too has its flaws - characters getting over dramatic at times especially Falu and her husband; more than the Dholakia's family, the last episode seemed highly disoriented. Till then the momentum of the series was good. In the 10th episode, due to an unexpected situation, everyone in the Dholakia family spill out their personal secrets, in the final 10 minutes of their lives. But dramatically, they all survive and end up messing their lives for worse, due to those long kept secrets. If the director's intention was to lay the foundation for the next season, he should have executed it better. Sadly, audience were served kichidi, instead of the spicy fried rice they expected, in "The last supper"!!!

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  1. AnonymousApril 2, 2023 at 3:47 PM

    Good to know about this series... Will definetly watch :)

    ReplyDelete

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