Look at the title of Radhika Bansal's Netflix movie: Meethe Mein Kya Hai. The first word, meaning "sweet," is the key one because it defines the very tone of the film. This family drama is too cute, too sentimentalized, too harmless, too sugary. The title might as well be a self-aware, self-referential wink, as if saying, "Meethe mein hai yeh film." Set mostly in Lucknow, it's about Jai (Ritwik Bhowmik), an architect who plans to move to Georgia after the death of his wife. She died two years ago, and he is still not over it. His mother, Amrita (Ayesha Raza Mishra), wants him to visit his Nani (Rohini Hattangadi) in Lucknow for Diwali, but Jai wants to leave India as soon as possible. A family reunion is the very last thing on his mind (or, you could say, it's so not on his mind). But of course, he does go to Lucknow, and the reason the movie gives is that his sister, Sana (Dalai), has secretly gotten married. Jai, it seems, is the first person to receive the news, and Sana wants him to be with her at Nani's house for moral support when she breaks the news to the other members of the family. She even tries to emotionally blackmail him by saying that she has always tied him rakhi. Moral of the story: sisters can be very cunning. During Raksha Bandhan, read all the terms and conditions carefully.
The best amusing moment in the movie arrives when Sana's secret is revealed in front of everybody. Its humor comes from the gradually escalating shock and surprise. Forget that Sana married a guy without informing anybody. That guy, Karam (Vikram Bakshi), is a divorcee, a father, and a Sikh. It's a triple whammy for the family. Amrita almost collapses, while Sana asks everyone to be chill. Yeah, right. Meethe Mein Kya Hai could have used more touches of comedic absurdity. Alas, it settles comfortably into its cuddly zone and begins to play out like one of those TVF videos where comedy is followed by sentimentality. It's the sweet kind of sentimentality, one that reinforces conservative values like "Family is a heartwarming gift." One can see Sooraj Barjatya smiling. Bansal, similarly, presents the meddling nature of families as a blessing. The movie suggests that it's a good sign, a gift, if your mother, father, aunt, sister, brother, sister-in-law, brother-in-law, grandmother, uncle, gardener, neighbor, and monkey are interfering in your personal life. Okay, I made up a few of them. But the point remains unchanged: Meethe Mein Kya Hai is all about the virtues of family. Dominic Toretto and Vijay Salgaonkar might also be smiling.
What Bansal presents is a comfy, digestible, wholesome view of familial relationships. Jai might often be told to meet other women so that he can remarry. And Amrita, before the arrival of guests, might be asked why she didn't wear a saree. However, none of these criticisms or naggings ever escalate into sustained screaming, verbal attacks, or taunts among family members. Jai does raise his voice at one point, but Bansal quickly coats his anger with humor and sugar, first taking us to a practice session and then showing Jai apologizing to Nani (who, of course, immediately smiles). This is one of those households where there is no talk of politics or anything remotely prickly that could crack the cover of geniality. Bansal aggressively maintains a cheerful tone, even when, say, Karam mistakenly thinks Amrita, behind closed doors, is criticizing him. All this could have worked in a 10-15-minute YouTube sketch, but as a movie, this sunshine-y attitude becomes monotonously exhausting after a while. I began to suspect that if I licked my laptop screen, it, too, would taste sweet. Anyway, I did like how sensitively Bansal handled 13-year-old Meera's (Shivika Rishi) crush on Jai, who is 35. He doesn't ridicule her feelings or dismiss them outright. Instead, using basic math and logic, he slowly makes her see the flaws in her naive romantic dreams. It's certainly one of the very best things about the movie, just after Sana's "husband reveal" to her family. If only Bansal had more scenes belonging to either of these two categories. The film might then have had a little more flavor beyond all that sugar. It wouldn't have felt so sticky.
Final Score - [4/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
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Publisher at Midgard Times