oppn parties Happy Family: Conditions Apply Is A Refreshing Comedy

Story Of The Day

India Lose A Test They Should Have Won
OPINIONS : Strongly Expressed

June 29, 2025

People Are Talking About

Rohit Warns Sarfaraz, Police Use It To Warn Two-Wheeler Riders

News Snippets

  • R Praggananda wins Tashkent meet, become number 1 chess player in India with FIDE rating of 2799
  • Supreme Court says its 'grounds of arrest' order was prospective and cannot be applied restrospectively as it was alarmed by a Karnataka HC order that released a murder accused who was arrested two years ago as the police did not provide him a copy of 'grounds of arrest' in writing
  • Russia assured India that it will get the remaining two squadrons of S-400 surface-to-air missile systems by 2027
  • Kolkata Police launches a new service to report e-fraud. People losing more than Rs 10L in any e-fraud can call 1930 for automatic registration of FIR against such crime
  • US embassy in India asks vias-seekers to provide information about all their social media handles for the last 5 years, and asks the access to these handles be made 'public'. Warns that omitting any information might result in "visa denial and ineligibility for future visas"
  • India refuses to sign the SCO joint statement as it fails to address its concern over terrorism by completely omitting any reference to the Pahalgam attack
  • Mamata Banerjee claims that in a dangerous and alarming move, the Election Commission is targeting Bengal with its voter-list revision norms that need people to provide birth certificates to become voters
  • The information from the black box of crashed AI Dreamliner has been recovered and downloaded and the reasons for the crash may be known in 10 days
  • Road transport minister Nitin Gadkari urges industry to ferry goods with trucks using green fuel
  • Listed, private, non-financial companies reported a sales growth of 7.2% in 2024-25, much better than the worrisome 4.7% reported in 2023-24, showing that demand increased substantially
  • Stock markets in bull grip on Thursday: sensex soars 1000 points to 83755 and Nifty 304 points to 25549 as markets continue to celebrate easing of tensions in the Middle-East
  • Asian Squash Doubles Championships: India win all three titles - men's, women's and mixed in a superb show
  • ICC introduces two new rules in Tests: Stop clocks to calculate perfect time for over rates and letting the fielding team decide which batter will keep strike if a deliberate 'short' run is attempted
  • CBSE boards for Class X will be held twice a year from 2026
  • Reliance and Adani enter into a partneship for fuel distribution. Adani will sell Reliance petroleum products at its outlets and Reliance will sell Adani CNG from its outlets
India rejects arbitration panel for indus River treaty, says it is illegal and has no jurisdiction to rule on India's action
oppn parties
Happy Family: Conditions Apply Is A Refreshing Comedy

By Yogendra
First publised on 2023-03-11 06:33:25

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Yogendra is freelance writer

If you have had enough of thrillers, blood and gore on OTT, Happy Family: Conditions Apply (streaming on Amazon Prime) will be like a breath of fresh air. With its family-driven content, Happy Family is marked by excellent performances from Ratna Pathak and Atul Kulkarni and good support from Raj Babbar and Ayesha Jhulka. It takes us back in time when shows like Khichdi and Sarabhai vs Sarabhai used to tickle our funny bones. Happy Family (directed by Aatish Kapadia and Jamnadas Majethia, who had also helmed the two earlier shows) is also a comedy that takes us on a roller-coaster ride with the happenings in the Dholakia family.

Four generations of Dholakia's live in a four-bedroom flat in a tony Mumbai neighbourhood. They own four pharmacies and are 'traditionally' modern. The matriarch drinks champagne and asks for chilled beer when given a virgin mojito in a resort. She is also cunning and tries to create a wedge between her daughter-in-law and her daughter-in-law. Ratna Pathak in her elements and her one-liners are too good as she has perfect comic timing. As her son, Atul Kulkarni carries a pouch in which he keeps medicines and injections and offers annoyingly free medical advice to anyone who dares to even cough in his presence. The other son is in the US and marries a Kenyan, to the utter disgust of the mother.

The grandson drops a bomb when he informs the family that he wants to live separately with his wife. The blame for dividing the family goes to the grand daughter-in-law. The happenings, including jewellery being stolen (and which turns out to be fake jewellery) and apparel designs being copied set the stage for comic interludes which are often hilarious. Season 1 of the show (four episodes of around 35 minutes each) is refreshing and will keep you engaged.

Other Stories You Make Like

Editorials

Freedom To Spew Hate Not Part Of Freedom of Expression

Freedom To Spew Hate Not Part Of Freedom of Expression

 50 Years Of Emergency: Remembering The Darkest Chapter In Independent India's Political Journey

50 Years Of Emergency: Remembering The Darkest Chapter In Independent India's Political Journey

In Depth

Supreme Court Gets Strict On Child Pornography

Supreme Court Gets Strict On Child Pornography

Editor's Pick

Congress Fumes As Shashi Tharoor Does Not Stop Praising Modi

Congress Fumes As Shashi Tharoor Does Not Stop Praising Modi
© 2014 India Commentary. All rights reserved.