Director: Mandar Kurundkar

Cast: Rajesh Kumar, Juhi Parmar, Hetal Gada, Veena Mehta, Anngad Maaholay

Available On: Amazon MiniTV

Duration: 5 Episodes, Around 30 Minutes Each

‘Yeh Meri Family 2’: Story

‘Yeh Meri Family 2’ revolves around a 15-year-old girl, and her relationships with her mother, father, brother and grandmother, set in the backdrop of the winter of 1994. Just like any other teenager, she hates every one of them, but through the course of the show manages to find out the deeper meaning of her bond with each of them. Will she finally have a coming-of-age moment? Will the others be able to understand her predicament and adjust accordingly? Will they end up being the ideal family that we all vie for? Well, for all that, you’ll have to watch the show.

‘Yeh Meri Family 2’: Performances

It might be surprising but Anngad Maaholay comes up with the best performance among the 5 leads. The young boy manages to surprise you with his quirky mannerisms and his antics. Even his annoying habits make you guffaw and remember your own sibling doing similar things to you in your growing up years. His performance is so natural and unfiltered that you are left thinking whether he is even acting or it’s just coming naturally from him.

Juhi Parmar is the ideal mother figure whom we all have seen growing up. Every time she scolds or says NO to some want of the kids it gives you a remembrance of similar incidents with your own mother. The little nuances that Parmar brings into the character make you enjoy her performance even more. She justifies the title of ‘Kiran Bedi’ in every sense of the word, yet as the viewer you want to keep seeing her as the mom over and over again.

Hetal Gada is good but her performance comes out slightly pushy. While some of her emotional moments look purely genuine, there were some moments where she was probably talking to her parents or fighting with her brother that didn’t get that necessary feel of reality and felt forced.

Rajesh Kumar?is probably the weakest of all the characters. He is known for funny expressions and quick wit, but here, as the doting father, he didn’t quite explore the possibilities of the character to that extent. He, sort of, played what was written on paper, and it felt that he didn’t give his own Rajesh Kumar punch to the character to uplift it. Also, another thing he grossly missed out on was the fear of the father that every 1990s kid grew up with. Mothers used to always scare the kids by saying ‘Let your father come in the evening’. That statement was like a death knell to the kid, and they used to be so shit-scared and used to do whatever mom or grandmothers used to be asking for. Usually in the evenings when the fathers used to come back home, they used to be loving only, and quite opposite to what moms used to make them look like. Rajesh Kumar?missed out on bringing out that emotional feeling. He was the soft-hearted father who could never be angry with the kids and was more like a friend to them throughout.

Veena Mehta as the dadi had the least amount of screen time. However, she managed to bring out a well-balanced decent performance.

‘Yeh Meri Family 2’: Script, Direction & Technical Aspects

The story by Shreyansh Pandey, Anandeshwar Dwivedi, Nikhil Sachan, and Vipul Mayank is the heart and soul of ‘Yeh Meri Family 2’. The nostalgia that the stories evoke is what makes this worth the wait. In every nook and corner of the story, you’ll be left pondering about your own real-life situations in your growing-up years. Each episode tackles a different issue and a different bonding but every one of them is uniquely touching and relatable to the core.

Nikhil Sachan manages to justify these relatable yet nostalgic feelings in his screenplay. However, there are a few aspects of the story which could have been tapped into more. The bonding with parents, grandparents and siblings doesn’t get solidified over one incident, but over many instances. Sachan, in his quest to keep things short, has used only one incident and one bonding per episode. It could have been spanned out to 2-3 episodes with a lot more instances leading up to a strong bonding between the central character and her relationship with her family members.

Mandar Kurundkar helms the project with utmost sincerity. However, with just 5 episodes it feels that some relationships could have been explored more. The father-daughter or the brother-sister or even the daughter-mother bonding could have at least one more instance, thereby one more episode per bond. It would have made the show more wholesome and made it more inclusive of the realities of growing up in the 1990s. Besides that, Kurunkar has done a fantastic job of managing to get the nostalgic feeling to the core.

Dhirendra Shukla sets up the entire story in Lucknow, but his cinematography barely shows the feel of the city. It’s pretty much the look and feel of any Indian small town. It doesn’t hurt the flow of the story in any manner, but because it’s set in Lucknow, a bit more feel of the city would have elevated the nostalgia for the audiences even further.

Jaskaran Singh Dusanje editing is crisp. He manages to keep the episodes to around 30 minutes and never lets the audience feel bored.

Pranaay’s background score and Nilotpal Bora’s music are decent. The BGM does give you the necessary feeling of longing and nostalgia. The opening musical track however doesn’t have that much of an impact and doesn’t warrant a repeat listen.

‘Yeh Meri Family 2’: Can Kids Watch It?

Yes

Outlook’s Verdict

‘Yeh Meri Family 2’ is a great nostalgic watch, however, it is not comparable to the first season. The subtlety of the first season slightly has gone missing, and here it seems a bit forced at the outset. It’s definitely a good One Time Watch. I am going with 3.5 stars.