Happy Family Conditions Apply Review: Ratna Pathak Shah Holds Her Crown Tight & Aatish Kapadia Is One Of The Best Things To Have Happened To Indian Television

Cast: Ratna Pathak Shah, Raj Babbar, Atul Kulkarni, Ayesha Jhulka, Sana Kapur, Raunak Kumbhar, and ensemble.

Creator: JD Majethia & Aatish Kapadia.

Director: JD Majethia & Aatish Kapadia.

Streaming On: Amazon Prime Video.

Language: Hindi (with subtitles).

Runtime: 10 Episodes, Around 30 Minutes Each.

Happy Family: Conditions Apply Review : What’s It About:

Dholakia family, a hardcore Gujarati family, has four generations living under one roof in a plush apartment. Together they fight every situation until the son one day says he is starting a nuclear family.

Happy Family: Conditions Apply Review : What Works:

Aatish Kapadia is single-handedly responsible for bringing a cultural shift to the television content that was and has fast turned into a women-centric ecosystem (not empowering for sure). Kapadia, over the past two decades has not just taught the TV industry how comedy is done but created some of the most brilliant IPs that have become eternal. Be it creating Khichdi or writing Sarabhai vs Sarabhai, he is probably the best thing that ever happened to the India TV industry, and was cut out for digital content way before India even witnessed the OTT boom.

So when a writer so smart that his comedy is a no-brainer and satirical at the same time has every element in his support, gets to make show that stands tall for his genre and even more, he will hit a sixer with his partner JD Majethia. Happy Family Conditions Apply is a show that is hilarious but also full of emotions, and if that is not a combination that convinces you, it has some of the most seasoned actors ever. Pitched as a comedy show, it is more than that, and much more than you could expect it to be with every episode. In a world where guns & goons have become the go to OTT genre for filmmakers, Kapadia, with JD Majethia, teaches the kids that there is still an audience to the old-school platter if done rightly.

Describing Happy Family Conditions Apply as just a comedy show is a understatement about the mind of its creator, who says a lot weaved in laughter. Like Aatish’s cult Sarabhai vs Sarabhai, he manages to make a spoof out of the rich even here but never makes their cartoon. He questions the very grammar of a joint family and whether it can stand the test of modernized world. They are talking about homos*xuality, women wanting to work after marriage, and a generation in their old age stringent towards change. They only accept the change that benefits them, but refrain from acknowledging the one that takes away their power.

There is so much respect for how Happy Family Conditions Apply is created. It doesn’t run away from cuss words because it’s a family show, but it also reminds that it is how the world is now. There is never too much of anything here. Every joke lands, each character has a graph, there is empathy in how every arc is handled. This is definitely a fine wine that has aged with the writer, who always dreamt of having a medium to make a full-blown product.

The highlight is how original the writing is. Be it the screenplay or the dialogue, both. Precisely what the recent comedy show Pop Kaun? miserably failed at.

Happy Family: Conditions Apply Review : Star Performance:

Ratna Pathak Shah takes a 180-degree turn from Maya Sarabhai and turns a Gujarati woman who is rich but also vernacular. On paper, this much have been a conveniently orthodox character that is smart for her own good. But Shah makes Hemlata her own and does wonders with it. If she continues playing Hemu for some more seasons, we might get an addition to the list that has the iconic Hansa, Monisha, and Roshesh.

Atul Kulkarni is a chameleon and can play any part under the sun. The actor, as a naive man, is so effortless that at no point it looks like he is acting it out. Ayesha Jhulka needs to keep working if this is what her second innings is going to be like. There is so much that she brings to the table as Pallavi. A woman who has ran an entire house with no expectation of credit. She runs the show but also has a quirk towards a trendy life. Such a shift for the mother character and a charming one.

Raj Babbar as dadaji is a silent spectator of this world. Probably a gateway for the audience who are also seeing everything like him but want to see how far this can go. The actor is so adorable in parts where he is needed to be. Sana Kapur has definitely grown as an actor, and here she gets a lot to do as the youngest daughter in the family. Raunak Kumbhar as Sanj(o)uy is fun. He gets to play a complex part, and he does it well, and so does Meenal Sahu.

Happy Family: Conditions Apply Review : What Doesn’t Work:

The only complaint with Happy Family is that it loses its connectivity a bit in some parts. The sequence feels disjointed once or twice but never enough to ruin your complete experience.

Happy Family: Conditions Apply Review : Last Words:

Happy Family Conditions Apply is peak Television blending into the new age content structure. A change that should be celebrated and welcomed. This is how the TV space must be remembered.

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