Gopal (Jeetendra) a medico falls in love with a girl Meena (Nanda) on a bus journey. Gopal lives with his father Karamchand (Om Prakash), the only breadwinner of a huge family. Since Gopal is a stepson to his virago wife Bhagwanti (Sulochana Latkar), she scorns and evicts him. Time passes, Gopal becomes a doctor, couples up with Meena, and is blessed with 3 children. Besides, Karamchand goes indebted as he is unable to sustain the family. Moreover, his lecherous friend Diwanchand Rai (Krishan Dhawan) lusts for one of his daughters Sapna (Madhavi). Knowing it, Gopal revolts which Bhagwanti discredits and conversely libels him. As a result, Sapna becomes pregnant and kills herself when Bhagawanti realizes her mistake. Then, fuming Karamchand slaughters Diwanchand when Gopal self-implicates, to rescue his father. At the last minute, Karamchand confesses his guilty and leaves his last breath. At last, Gopal honors his father’s responsibilities. Finally, the movie ends with Meena aiding Gopal at work.
Synopsis
is the story of an Indian joint family consisting of four married and highly qualified brothers who live under the same roof with their respective families. They live in harmony until one day, an argument over a glass of milk leads to a full-blown fight amongst the elders. The argument then snowballs into a serious property dispute and the only way out of the situation seems to be the division of property amongst the brothers. Will this wonderful joint family eventually part ways?
StarringBipin Gupta,Jairaj,Durga Khote,Usha Kiran,Sajjan,Kumud,Anwar,Sulochana Latkar,Agha,Dhumal,Ali Asgar,Shivji Bhai,Ashim Kumar.
Serendipity isn’t something I encounter too frequently while watching Hindi cinema. More often than not, it’s the other way round: I watch a film because I liked the cast, or because the story sounds appealing, or (and this happens with appalling frequency) because the music is wonderful. That I should watch a film about which I know next to nothing—on a whim, so to say—and find that it’s not just watchable but actually quite enjoyable is something to be grateful about. Which is why this review. Seriously speaking, I hadn’t expected much of Parivaar (the name itself conjures up one of those extremely melodramatic social dramas AVM used to specialise in).
Worse, I had my memories (I wish I could rid myself of them) of having watched the utterly execrable Nanda-Jeetendra starrer Parivaar, one of the worst films from the 60s I’ve ever wasted three hours upon. But, back to this Parivaar, which brought a smile of pleased anticipation to my face as soon as the credits began to roll. Directed by Asit Sen and produced by Bimal Roy, Parivaar is set completely within the large haveli of the Choudhary brothers, where all of them, with the exception of one brother, live as a joint family. Over the first hour or so of the film, we are introduced to these men, their families, and their servants.
The eldest of the brothers is Mahesh (Bipin Gupta), though he’s only ever referred to as bade bhaiya. Bade bhaiya is the one who is ostensibly in charge of overseeing the family’s land and other large assets, though he seems to spend most of his time playing chess with various nephews.
Badi bhabhi (we never do get to hear her name; Durga Khote) is a sweet, genial old lady who governs the household with a velvet fist in a velvet glove: she’s the soul of innocent amiability.
The majhle bhaiya, the ‘middle brother’ (P Jairaj) is Ramesh, who’s a lawyer. Ramesh is so completely engrossed in his work that even the time he spends at home is devoted mostly to reading briefs and preparing his cases. He’s such an unabashed workaholic that even his wife, everybody’s majhle bhabhi (Usha Kiron) has now reconciled herself to having to take second place to her husband’s work. She’s very cheerful, keeps pulling his leg about it, and is—as emerges from her interactions with the others in the family—a strong-willed, decisive and imaginative woman, the go-getter among the women of the family.
The third brother, Ganesh (Anwar Hussain) doesn’t appear on the scene until nearly an hour of the story is past—because Ganesh, along with his wife Malti (Kumud), lives in Banaras with two of their young children. Ganesh is an engineer, and his work requires him to live in Banaras. However, he and his wife have decided that their eldest son Kamal is best educated in their hometown, so Kamal stays with his uncles, aunts and assorted cousins in the Choudhary haveli. Majhli bhabhi, in particular, dotes upon Kamal, treating him almost as her own child—he even sleeps in her room.
The fourth brother is Dinesh (Sajjan), who’s a doctor. Dinesh is one of those really enthusiastic doctors, constantly pestering his family about minding their health. When we first see him, for instance, he’s getting ready to leave for work, while supervising his wife Jaishree (Kamal) skipping. He tells Jaishree that she needs to skip at least 200 times a day, in order to balance out all the calories she consumes. Not something that Jaishree is overly keen on.
Dinesh doesn’t let the rest of his family alone, either; he brings home a weighing scale and records everybody’s weight so he can monitor their diet. And when the family hosts a large dinner, he goes about putting potassium permanganate in the wash water. Dinesh and Jaishree have one son, little Raju, who is the favourite of bade bhaiya and badi bhabhi—the former loves to play chess with Raju.
Last of all, and youngest of the five brothers, is Suresh (Ashim Kumar), who is a musician. He has recently got married, to the equally musically-inclined Manju (Sabita Chatterjee), whom he met at a music-and-dance conference. Their shared love for music and dance means that Suresh and Manju spend much of their time ensconced in their room, doing riyaaz.
The producer-director duo of Rashmin Majithia and Vipul Mehta have come up with a film that is very different from their previous blockbuster hit Chaal Jeevi Laiye (2019).
The story of director Vipul Mehta’s Kehvatlal Parivar is about an ageing single father who toils to earn money and look after his family while people around him seem lost in their own world. He has other issues, too, to deal with on a daily basis.
Reading this introduction you might think this is a serious film and a tearjerker. And you would be completely wrong. Kehvatlal Parivar is a laugh-riot that has lots of appeal for its main target — the family audience — though the subject is very different from Mehta’s previous film, the wildly successful.
Although Kehvatlal Parivar is a story set in today’s times in Ahmedabad, it feels like a period film, at least for half the time, because of the old-world house and its owner Raju Thakar (Siddharth Randeria). His wife Kalindi (Supriya Pathak) died 23 years ago and he has been struggling since to keep afloat the family’s traditional business of selling dhoklas (a popular Gujarati savoury made of rice and chickpeas). His son Himesh (Bhavya Gandhi) gets him into trouble regularly. He is also unhappy with daughter Heta (Shraddha Dangar) for her lack of seriousness in life.
Rajubhai’s sister Bhadra (Vandana Pathak) is another member of the household who irritates him. She has left her in-laws and lives with her brother now, spending all her time becoming a social media influencer. As if this were not enough, Rajubhai faces stiff competition in business from his own brother Shamlu (Sanjay Goradia), who also sells dhoklas right near his stall.
Then the story takes a major twist: one day, out of the blue, Kalindi returns home hale and hearty.
Over the decades, Randeria has acquired the image of an actor who can make people laugh even in the midst of tragedy. This is true of his performances on stage as well as in cinema. Sure enough, his trademark humour is on display throughout the film's runtime of two hours 17 minutes. Having said that, he also excels at the emotional scenes. It won’t be wrong to say he carries the film on his shoulders.
When the trailer for Kehvatlal Parivar was released, it seemed as if the makers gave out much of the plot. But it turns out the promo gave a glimpse of only the first half hour of the film. There are a lot more twists and turns in the plot that will stoke your interest in what happens next. The narrative moves smoothly and naturally into heartwarming mode in the final moments.
The production design recreates an old-world Gujarati house perfectly. While the house and its interiors appear old, there is a certain earthy charm about them. Sachin-Jigar’s music is entertaining with the 'Holi' track being the best. The song also features Pratik Gandhi making a cameo appearance.
Bhavya Gandhi, who earlier played the famous character Tapu in the long-running television show Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah, is in good form here too. Shraddha Dangar, best known for her hard-hitting portrayal of the lead in the brilliant Hellaro (2019), shines in a completely different avatar here.
Supriya Pathak wins the viewer over with the various shades of Kalindi. Vandana Pathak, Sanjay Goradia, Neel Gagdani and Dharmesh Vyas provide able and timely support.
Through all the entertainment and the performances, one issue sticks out. Any family would have been shocked out of its wits to find a member who had been thought to be dead for more than two decades reappearing hale and hearty out of the blue. For sure they would have all wanted to know where and how she had been all these years, why she had stayed away for so long, and why she has now reappeared. However, the parivar in the film moves on as if this were a casual everyday occurrence.
The flaw, thankfully, is covered up to a large extent by the fast pace of the screenplay, the continuous dollops of humour and, more importantly, a convincing climax.
Kehvatlal Parivar was released in theatres on 6 May 2022.
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Movie
FEATURE FILM
Kehvatlal Parivar (2022)
Lead Cast
SIDDHARTH RANDERIA
Actor
SUPRIYA PATHAK
Actor
Director
VIPUL MEHTA
Director
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