‘The Mehta Boys’ review: A poised directing debut by Boman Irani

Boman Irani is best known for his performances in movies such as Munnabhai MBBS and 3 Idiots. With The Mehta Boys, 65-year-old Irani makes his debut as a writer and director, while also playing seventy-something Shiv Mehta.

In the largely Hindi-language film (with a bit of English and Gujarati), Irani and co-writer Alex Dinelaris explore a fractured father-son relationship. Shiv (Irani) and Amay (Avinash Tiwary) have a strained equation that is put to the test when they are forced to spend a weekend together. It’s a situation they both dread, but circumstances and some mishaps ensure that the duo find a way to get through the next few days.

Amay is a talented but diffident architect. Despite ample encouragement from his colleague and girlfriend Zara (Shreya Chaudhary) and boss (Siddhartha Basu), Amay lacks the confidence to share his opinion or his designs.

Every moment with his father puts Amay further on edge. In turn, the senior Mehta is unable to accept that his son is now a man. He goes around switching off the lights in Amay’s house and judges his crumbling apartment.

The Mehta Boys is out on Prime Video. Although the script alludes to the cause for the discord, it neither blames nor absolves either Mehta boy. Can a son ever stop being…

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