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Happy Family: Conditions Apply first impression: The conditions apply get a stronger hold over a ‘happy family’

Ratna Pathak Shah holds the show together by a thread.

Happy Family: Conditions Apply first impression: The conditions apply get a stronger hold over a ‘happy family’
Happy Family: Conditions Apply.

Last Updated: 08.26 PM, Mar 10, 2023

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Story:

Happy Family is a peak into the life of a Gujarati family and how things aren’t always as they seem.

Review:

Happy Family is introduced with none other than, the nameplate and an abandoned house. It gets into the conditions apply instantly, for sure.

Ratna Pathak Shah enters the show and she is her classic self as Hemlata. Even if stereotypical, she still tries to and almost gives her best. Raj Babbar joins in as the helpless husband.

Sanah Kapur as Aayushi is next and she barely gets to act because the camera pans out of her face before she can even try. Atul Kulkarni as Ramesh is the surprise and quite a pleasant one. Ayesha Jhulka’s Pallavi is given just the opposite role. She is made to join the dumb trend of taking selfies with random things at random moments. Nonetheless, she ends up being adorable, especially when with Ratna's Hemlata.

The show is instantly offensive as it gets to racial jokes. Five minutes into the series, you know not everything is as it seems. Meenal Sahu, in the role of Sanjoy (Raunaq Kamdar)’s wife Tisca is the reason for it.

Sanah and Meenal’s pokerface dialogue does not help the show one bit. There’s either that or there’s overdrama. Even Atul is made to overact at times. That’s how the show is built.

The cinematography on the show isn’t amazing at all. The focus is never on what really matters and that distracts you from the story almost always. To top it up, there’s dramatic music everytime there’s a scene change.

Atul Kumar as Suresh has a brief role but is the most mysterious on the show. The character is explored slightly but there’s still a lot to know about him.

The comic relief in Happy Family comes in non-veg jokes. It is a cute moment and somehow works. Soon after, the drama and tempers rise.

Margaret Wanjiku Kariuki as Kai is barely there too. This is mainly because of her appearance, which is questioned on the show.

With that, you know that the show and family is stereotypical and traditional and not in a good sense. The jokes are all in a poor taste.

Paresh Ganatra makes an appearance and he is the same as always. He has another trademark. While one is obsessed with selfies, he is obsessed with photos.

Pranoti Pradhan is made to overact. She is the other half of him.

Some jokes work really well even when drama is the main topic of the show. The show captures a Gujarati family well. The inside jokes are something that only people of the culture understand.

The problem with this show is that nobody can read the room. They cannot understand either in their 'happy family' or outside it.

The show gets somewhat better as the episodes progress. Well, till the last episode happens. There again, you see a glimpse of a building when the dialogues start.

The Gujarati accents definitely do not work all the time on the show. While some work, others are just forced.

At the end, though, the show ends up being heartwarming and gives the message of being accepting of one another despite the flaws. That works for the better of the show.

Verdict:

Happy Family is a rather sarcastic way of putting things. The JD directorial is about an Indian family that lives together under circumstances. Do they thrive together? Not particularly. This one gets the toxic traits well and the jokes are very poor but by the end of it, you almost ignore all of that and focus on the drama, even if it is not completely up to the point.

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