Happy Family: Conditions Apply Review: Ratna Pathak Shah Brings Beer And Masala To This Pure Veg Comedy
This is just what you need to unplug this weekend!
After a week of toiling at work, we all need a break to just unplug and relax a little. And that’s precisely why all of us look for films and series to take us away from our lives and our worlds and into a different place where we get to live vicariously or we can just lose ourselves in this world and forget all about our life and the stress it brings. And the best way to do it is to watch a light-hearted comedy to keep us glued to our seats as we laugh freely like a little children. Filmmakers Jamnadas Majethia and Aatish Kapadia have brought to us a light-hearted family drama titled Happy Family: Conditions Apply starring Ratna Pathak Shah, Ayesha Jhulka, Atul Kulkarni, Raj Babbar and Sanah Kapur among several others. The series premiered on OTT platform Prime Video. Umm, what more are you waiting for? Go on and read the full review of this rib-tickling series.
The Story Of Happy Family: Conditions Apply
We often come across big Indian joint families and most of them seem so happy, happening and content but honestly, conditions do apply. Joint families comprise of members from different generations and while 2023 may be very woke, these oldies aren’t and there’s no way to make them woke. And we’ve all just got to live with it. Living with this reality in joint families means that there will be light-hearted moments of love and joy and there will be tragic and painful moments as well. Much in line with the same thought, the web series Happy Family: Conditions Apply follows the story of the Dholakia family. This stereotypical Gujarati family consists of people from 4 different generations that bring together traditions and modern values. This family happens to have all the cliché yet somehow unique character and their nok-jhok and quirks land this family in sometimes chaotic and sometimes hilarious situation and yet everything that doesn’t kill them makes them stronger! However, where this story is going is something that all of us will have to wait to find out because only 4 out of the total 10 episodes of the series have been released on the OTT platform and 2 new episodes will be released on the platform every Friday till March 31.
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Cast And Characters
The cliché Dholakia family has the sharp-tongued dadi aka Lata Ben aka Hemlata Mansukhlal Dholakia, played by Ratna Pathak Shah. We’ve known Ratna Pathak Shah to be the iconic Maya Sarabhai from Sarabhai vs Sarabhai, and I promise you, the actress simply shines throughout the first four episodes with her kickass sarcasm and taunts. Ratna Pathak Shah has finally brought back a version of Maya Sarabhai that will have all desis cracking up. She plays a stereotypical mother-in-law who is overdramatic, overbearing, and patriarchal yet somehow matriarchal enough to run the show. Ratna’s Lata Ben is just like every other orthodox (grand) mother-in-law who cannot put up with her modern bahu who has short hair and who doesn’t wear a mangalsutra and she makes sure to convey her petty issues with the bahu with sassy remarks and sharp sarcastic comments. And the casting couldn’t have been better. Ratna Pathak Shah has the comic timing of Hansa from Khichdi and the wit and sass of Maya Sarabhai. She’s not as classy as Maya but she’s not as old school as Hansa either. Lata Ben is the high-spirited cool dadi we all want, who drinks beer, flirts with dadaji in front of everyone, swears like a sailor (but dadi version), watches semi-naked male models walk the ramp on TV at night and she also fuels the fire or rather creates fire in places where there’s no fire or spark for the sake of drama.
While Raj Babbar is a great actor, the show had no space for him to display his acting skills because Ratna Pathak Shah’s Lata Ben did not just steal the limelight but she stole the whole damn show! Raj Babbar plays Lata Ben’s silent and mature husband Mansukhlal Dholakia, who cleans up the mess his wife creates in a calm and composed manner.
Mansukh and Hemlata’s son Ramesh M Dholakia played by Atul Kulkarni is one hell of a character with quirks that may irk you but he’ll have your sides in splits with his innocent expressions every time he delivers a punch that has you bending over with laughter. I cannot count the number of times Ramesh M Dholakia said “lovely”, at the most inappropriate places, on both my fingers. What makes his character stand out, even more, is how Atul Kulkarni just eases into playing Ramesh and breathes life into the character as Ramesh goes on a discussion about medicines or tries to recommend medicines to people at THE most inappropriate times. The guy truly has a thing for bad timing but damn he’s got the perfect comic timing.
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Ayesha Jhulka’s Pallavi Dholakia who happens to be Ramesh M Dholakia happens to be a modern mother-in-law to Tisca Dholakia and a chill daughter-in-law to Lata Ben. Apart from her relatable yet annoying habit of clicking selfies, Ayesha’s character does not have much to offer. The only thing holding me back from rating this show higher. While, there are 6 more episodes to go, from the looks of it, Ayesha’s character is a meek one and not meaty at all. And there’s only so much an actor can do when their character is not written well.
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Sanah Kapoor plays the daughter of the Dholakia family, Ayushi Dholakia. She’s the very woke, feminist in the family who makes sure to call out the sexism and misogyny but somehow her character lacks depth and feels half-baked and half-hearted. Sanah’s Ayushi is selective when it comes to calling our gender inequality, stereotypes and norms which makes her wokeness seem unrealistic. The actress, however, seems to have given her 100% to the character.
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Raunaq Kamdar plays Sanjay…oopsie, I mean Sanjuoy Dholakia because he changes his name after a numerologist recommended it to him. He plays the cliché boy who wants to leave his chaotic joint family and live on his own. I know, I know it’s pakka his biwi who wants, well, guess what? She doesn’t. So all Sanju does throughout the 4 episodes of be an ignorant, entitled beta who takes everyone and everything for granted and constantly keeps trying to get people to call him Sanjuoy instead of Sanjay (in the most unfunny manner, might I add) but gets stressed when someone actually calls him Sanjuoy. Sadly, this character does not have much to offer apart from pushing the story further. His wife, on the other hand, is a different story.
Meenal Sahu plays the role of Sanjuoy’s wife Tisca Dholakia who is at the receiving end of Lata Ben’s taunts. I know what you’re thinking, she’s that modern, evil bahu. But no, she is not but that doesn’t mean that she hasn’t been villainised and bad girl coded. Tisca is the cliché modern bahu who wears jeans and has short hair and works while her saas babysits her son and Lata Ben won’t let you forget it. Interestingly, Tisca’s issues lie not with her saas Pallavi but rather with her dadi-saas Lata Ben who’s always got a sassy remark at the tip of her tongue with a hilarious pet name for this bahu. And the feminist in me was pissed off at Lata Ben’s remarks and the banter between this sass-bahu jodi but their camaraderie and comic timing makes it tough to not laugh.
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And then there is the black sheep of the family, Suresh Dholakia (played by Atul Kumar) who went to Amrika and married a dark-skinned woman instead of an American Gujarati woman like his mother told him to. After waiting till the hair on his head turned white, the rebellious Gujarat boy married a woman of colour which, of course, does not sit well with his mother Lata Ben. Even though her son stays miles away, this typical Indian mother blames his wife Kwamboka played by Margaret Wanjiku Kariuki for “stealing” her raja beta and I promise you, it’ll have you rolling over with laughter. However, both the actors have very little screen time and their characters don’t have much to offer as expected.
Apart from these actors, Paresh Ganatra, Pranoti Pradhan, Swati Das, Neha Julka, Waqar Khan and Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal bring their own little quirks and punchlines to the show in their supporting roles.
Verdict: Ratna Pathak Shah Bring The Meat In This Veg Comedy
So, I’m going to rate this show 3.5 out of 5 stars for various reason. Jamnadas Majethia and Aatish Kapadia were also the makers of Khichdi and Sarabhai vs Sarabhai and Happy Family: Conditions Apply seems to be highly inspired by both shows. In terms of writing, dialogues, directions and cinematography the web series fare well. The comic timing and punchlines are perfectly placed to elicit laughter and it will have you cracking up with some minor hiccups here and there. The casting is amazing and Ratna Pathak Shah completely, absolutely will have your attention throughout the four episodes. But I must add, the makers have ensured that the audience relates to the show and the characters. Despite being a Punjabi, I could relate to this show with a Gujarati family. Even though every character was unique, each one reminded me of someone I know from my family who is just like that! Further, the comedy is clean with no dirty jokes or double-meaning punchlines making it a clean, old-school comedy which is rather refreshing in a time when we see double-meaning jokes everywhere. The show has also managed to showcase the generation gap with a balance of realism, modernity and progressiveness with a touch of comedy.
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Now, for the things that do not work in the favour of Happy Family: Conditions Apply, the first one is the fact that the writer did not give equal importance and attention to all characters which makes many of them seem like they exist just for the heck of it with hardly any dialogues or character depth. Sure, the show is hilarious AF but there were several moments when I wished they just skipped the misogynistic dialogues and the unnecessary wokeness. There’s a moment when Ayushi takes a stand for Tisca when Sanjouy makes a very regressive statement but the thing is that it seems very out of character for Sanjouy to say. And there are times when Tisca puts up with Lata Ben’s irritating remarks, double standard statements and derogatory pet names without saying a word despite being a modern, empowered, working woman.
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Having said that, it’s tough to give a definitive rating to Happy Family: Conditions Apply since 6 episodes are yet to come our way. It’s a hilarious show to watch and unplug over the weekend but at the same time, there is scope for improvement.
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