Latest news with #TheMehtaBoys
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First Post
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- First Post
Avinash Tiwary begins shooting for 'Ginny Wedss Sunny 2' with '12th Fail' star Medha Shankr, makers drop official announcement
From the makers of Tanu Weds Manu, Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana, and Ginny Weds Sunny, the sequel is written and directed by Prasshant Jha read more Avinash Tiwary and Medha Shankr have teamed up for the sequel of Ginny Weds Sunny. Recently, the makers of the rom-com treated the audience with an official announcement, stating that the shooting has kickstarted for the film's first schedule. Poised to be a lighthearted blend of romance, drama, and comedy, the film promises to showcase the lead stars in a breezy and relatable avatar. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD From the makers of Tanu Weds Manu, Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana, and Ginny Weds Sunny, the sequel is written and directed by Prasshant Jha, and it will be presented by Soundarya Productions. Apart from the announcement, the makers shared a click with Avinash and Medha, amping up excitement surrounding the film. Considering that Avinash has delivered compelling performances in Laila Majnu, The Mehta Boys, Madgaon Express, and Bambai Meri Jaan, among others, it would be exciting to see him share the screen space with 12th Fail fame Medha Shankr. Both actors have established their individualities with engaging and layered roles, and the curiosity is sky-high to see what they have to offer in Ginny Wedss Sunny 2.
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First Post
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- First Post
‘A Promising Star' Farah Khan praises ‘The Mehta Boys' star Avinash Tiwary's film choices
In a viral video, celebrated filmmaker Farah Khan and casting director Mukesh Chhabra hailed Avinash as a promising actor of the new-age Indian cinema read more Avinash Tiwary has believably risen as one of the most sincere performers among his lot of actors in Indian cinema. With films and series like Laila Majnu, Madgaon Express, Bambai Meri Jaan, The Mehta Boys, and others, Avinash has pushed the boundaries of contemporary storytelling and has always delivered impactful performances with each project. In a viral video, celebrated filmmaker Farah Khan and casting director Mukesh Chhabra hailed Avinash as a promising actor of the new-age Indian cinema. While Farah Khan named Avinash, she was agreed upon by Mukesh Chhabra, who also named Vikrant Massey. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Meanwhile, Avinash Tiwary has justified the term 'promising' with his careful choices of projects. Though he makes brief picks, he ensures to choose the work that carries depth, impact, and adds to his growth as an actor. On the work front, Avinash Tiwary is gearing up for his upcoming series, O Saathi Re. He is reuniting with acclaimed filmmaker Imtiaz Ali Khan and will be seen sharing the screen space with Aditi Rao Hydari and Arjun Rampal for the first time. Poised to be an intense romantic drama, Avinash Tiwary will portray a layered character in the engaging narrative, and will surely maintain his graph of delivering an impactful performance.
Express Tribune
09-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
The Mehta Boys review: of fathers and sons
The bond between a father and son is a landscape of unspoken words, shared silences, and the echoing footsteps of inherited traits. It's a relationship that can be both a source of profound strength and a delicate, often fraught, dance of expectations. The Mehta Boys captures this complex dynamic with a raw, unflinching honesty, which is also perhaps the most striking element of the film. It explores complexities, unspoken tensions, and silent moments of love and understanding that families knit together, and in doing so, it does not shy away from the messy, sticky realities of family, but instead it stays comfortably away from idealistic portrayals of parenthood or childhood. This genuineness is the strength of The Mehta Boys and hence it feels real, and not even a bit 'filmy'! I am positive that many fathers and sons must identify with the characters, their struggles, triumphs, and vulnerabilities. Much before Boman Irani, Bollywood's beloved powerhouse performer, decided to step behind the camera and deliver this incredibly impactful directorial debut, the endearing yet often complex father-son relationship has been explored a few times before. From Ivan Turgenev's Fathers and Sons, which is a Russian novel that explores the generational clash between fathers and their radical sons in 19th-century Russia, to The Pursuit of Happyness (2006), where Will Smith and his son deliver a heartfelt story about resilience and the sacrifices that a father makes for his child. While in my memory the sweetest story of a dad going to incredible lengths to find his son is Finding Nemo (2003), Bollywood too has explored the push and pull between fathers and sons, and we've seen it all. From the picture-perfect, 'yes-dad' son like Heera Thakur in Sooryavansham, to the son who toes the line but has his own mind, like Shah Rukh Khan in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, and even the son who completely breaks free, like Rajat Barmecha in Udaan, these films show just how varied and complicated that relationship can be. It is believed that a father-son relationship can be tricky because it often involves complex dynamics like differing expectations, generational gaps, communication challenges, and the need to navigate both dependence and independence, making it a relationship that can experience tension and conflict at times. Fathers and sons may have different values, perspectives, and approaches to life due to their age gap, leading to misunderstandings. Sometimes, they struggle to openly express their emotions, leading to bottled-up feelings and difficulty resolving conflicts. A son might feel pressure to live up to his father's expectations, while a father may struggle to balance being supportive with providing necessary guidance. Coming back to the film under discussion, The Mehta Boys marks 65-year-old Irani's debut as a screenwriter and director. The endearing drama about a father-son relationship stars Irani as the septuagenarian Mehta, with Avinash Tiwary (Sikander Ka Muqaddar) who plays his son Amay. Interestingly and sadly, Irani has no personal experience of a relationship with his dad, because his father died six months before he was born. 'I don't think I would have made this movie the way I wanted at 50,' he says in an interview. 'You need to get a little more out of life and experience some frustration too. It took me time to write it, cast it, make it.' Boman heard about a certain jagged father-son relationship that had a compelling airport moment and roped in co-writer Alexander Dinelaris (of Birdman fame) to explore this edgy relationship between Shiv Mehta and Amay and that leaves a grave impact. That airport moment has been captured in a beautiful scene in the film. Who knew that beneath the charismatic performer we've admired for so long lay a maestro of storytelling? Boman Irani has surprised us all, and in the best possible way. Things work out in a way that Shiv has to spend two days with his city-slicker son Amay and address the divisions. Shiv is a Gujarati speaking Parsi, set in his own ways like anybody else his age. He loves coaching cricket, his type-writer and his Sunil-Gavaskar-signed bat displayed on the wall in his room. He loves his daughter but his relationship with his son is awkward. He refuses to accept a helping hand and treats son Amay as if he is the neighbour's son, just with polite civility. He holds on to the hand-break when Amay drives while there is nothing wrong with Amay's driving, he checks his son's architectural abilities with a mason, turns off extra lights, and in short doesn't for some reason offer the validation and love every son needs. On the other side, Amay feels unvalidated, unloved, and that his father makes fun of his work and lifestyle in Mumbai. Both Irani and Tiwary are at the top of their craft and complement each other throughout the film. The performances under Irani's immaculate direction makes this film so relatable. It doesn't matter who you are – parent, kid, somewhere in between – you'll find something that clicks and connects. Your parents have bound to have done something that Shiv does or you may connect and identify with Amay. The Mehta Boys, speaks to those universal family experiences around generational gaps, unspoken expectations, the longing for connection at the heart of every parent-child relationship, how sometimes there are communication difficulties and misunderstandings in families, and how the importance of empathy and forgiveness are forgotten or cast aside. Without resorting to melodrama or over-sentimentality that films in the subcontinent thrive on, Irani allows emotions to emerge from the story and characters as they organically would from in a realistic situation. Watching these characters, you feel drawn to them and get invested in their journey. As you laugh and cry with them, feel their pain and anxiety, you begin to reflect on the relationships around you. What is rampant and what is amiss? You cannot help but want this father and son to a find common ground and learn to accept each other as whoever they are and carry on living their lives together. Long after the credits roll, you feel that your soul stirred and you remain connected to the Mehta family, wondering how many families had or have or will have similar journeys. A great fan of Irani's comedy and acting, I did not expect the direction to be at this super-sensitive level. He has almost mastered this craft too, and this is only his debut. If you like a mix of quirky, eccentric and realistic characters, if you like films that prove that a beautiful film can be made without spending trillions, without using song, dance, item numbers, vulgarity, sensationalism and objectification, this one is for you. The simple but powerful story about enduring and endearing relationships that is bound to evoke memories of bonds in life, resonating in a deep, meaningful and soulful way. It is visually captivating even though there are no panoramic landscapes, it is mostly shot indoors, but Irani makes sure the frames are engaging throughout the film. The Mehta Boys reminds us of the power that cinema has to connect us to other human beings and make us reflect on how complex our bonds with people are. At its core, the film is all about that convoluted and complicated dad-son thing, but it shows how easy it is to miss what's really being said, how pride and ego can get in the way, but also how it's never too late to try and understand each other. It's like, sometimes love doesn't look like what you expect. It can be tough, even harsh, but it's still love at the end of the day. The film makes one think about how we need to cherish those family ties, and maybe try to see past the surface, before it's too late. There are many instances in the film where Irani as Shiv, or Tiwari as Amay, share a look, a silence, that demonstrates how just that much can say a lot, especially between a father and son, and how those little things can cause so much trouble if we don't pay attention. Just like the Mehta family members sometimes we struggle to express their emotions openly, we bottle up our feelings or skirmish around them, not realising that at times even small attempts at communication can bridge the gap and lead to healing. The film that has won the People's Choice Award for Best Fiction Feature, at the 2024 Chicago South Asian Film Festival, also showcases the acting talent of the famous cricketer Kapil Dev too. In a world where everything's loud and flashy, The Mehta Boys is like a breath of fresh air. It's quiet, but it hits you deep. It's about those real connections, the ones that matter. It reminds you how beautiful, and fragile, family can be, and how love always finds a way. We need more films like this, films that stay with you.
The National
07-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
Boman Irani says The Mehta Boys was ‘the greatest learning experience' of his life
Good writers have the ability to make simple things sublime. In the hands of Boman Irani, for example, everyday items such as the handbrake of a car or a light switch become powerful tools for philosophical musings. Yes, that same Boman Irani who is mostly known for his prolific acting career in Hindi cinema, ranging from critically acclaimed arty fare to slapstick comedies. Irani, 65, stars in The Mehta Boys, a heartfelt drama about an estranged father and son who are forced to spend 48 hours together, streaming from Friday on Prime Video. Based on an idea pitched to him a few years ago by acclaimed writer and director Sujoy Ghosh, Irani was so taken by the story's potential, he decided to write, direct and produce it. 'There was something about the idea that resonated with me,' he tells The National. 'It's something so universal. It's such a beautiful process, trying to figure out people's wounds, people's fatal flaws, people's miscommunication, and all the confusion that happens between two people who love each other so dearly.' But wanting to do something and actually making it happen are two different things, as Irani soon found out. He describes the painstaking process of making The Mehta Boys as 'the greatest learning experience of my life'. 'After Sujoy sweetly said I could have his idea, I did a lot of research. I was doing a lot of movies then, so I'd write a scene one day, then another, and then scratch it and start all over again,' he explains. 'Then I'd sleep on it, thinking I'd written a masterpiece and then wake up and throw it in the dustbin. I am, unfortunately, a boring man, so I didn't have a social life. So I just kept at it.' Irani also reached out to an old friend, Oscar-winning screenwriter Alexander Dinelaris Jr, to help him fine-tune the script. 'Alexander kind of shepherded and shaped it. He would write independently and then I'd write independently, and every few months I'd go to New York where he is based and sit with him for hours, and then come back after two weeks, then go back again.' Irani's dedication to the project is already paying off. The Mehta Boys won Best Feature Film at the 15th Chicago South Asian Film Festival in September and Best Actor for Irani at the International Film Festival of South Asia in Toronto in October. It was also screened at the International Film Festival of India in Goa in November and the Indian Film Festival in Berlin last month, where it received wide praise. In the film, Irani plays retiree Shiv, who, after a tragedy, is pressured by his daughter Anu (Puja Sarup) to move with her to the US. But a ticketing mishap forces Anu to leave Shiv with her brother Amay (Avinash Tiwary), an architect based in Mumbai, for 48 hours. Estranged for many years, the two men patiently endure each other at first. But a series of incidents soon bring out old wounds, forcing father and son to reconcile with past differences and face their current realities. Irani displays a deft hand as a first-time director, largely benefiting from his and co-writer Dinelaris Jr's potent script, as the film explores the complexities of relationships, themes of masculinity and coping with grief. In the story, as it is often in life, there are no right or wrong sides. 'There are no villains in this film. The villain is within you, which is your ego and your fake sense of masculinity,' says Irani. 'This film is about looking at yourself, saying: 'That's probably me and I'm looking like a real idiot doing what I'm doing over there.' ' Irani, whose two sons also work in the film industry – Kayoze Irani is an actor and Danesh Irani is a producer – says he also drew from personal experiences to write and play his character, as well as many interviews of fathers and sons. He also borrowed themes from Sigmund Freud's essay, Family Romances, which explores different phases children experience in relation to their parents. 'We've got a great relationship,' he says of his sons. 'We do have our run-ins every now and then, but thankfully they get sorted the same evening. That's the difference between mine and Shiv and Amay's relationship.' Starting his career as a photographer before moving to theatre and then acting in his first movie, 2001's Everybody Says I'm Fine!, Irani has appeared in more than 100 films. His notable work include roles in horror anthology Darna Mana Hai and blockbuster comedy Munna Bhai M.B.B.S., both in 2003, as well as record-breaking comedy-drama 3 Idiots (2009). He says he is relishing his latest phase as director. 'I was not made for only one film. I've had many productive times,' he says. 'I feel very proud of myself as a shopkeeper. I've been proud of myself as a waiter. I've been proud of myself as a photographer, as a theatre actor and I've had some wonderful times in the cinema as an actor. 'And I always give myself an opportunity to feel a certain joy in what I do. So yes, at this point, I'm enjoying the joy of what The Meta Boys has brought me.'
