Irani Movietone and Chalkboard Entertainment’s The Mehta Boys (UA) is the story of a father and his architect-son and their strained relationship.
Shiv Mehta (Boman Irani) has lost his wife. His daughter, Anu (Puja Sarup), has flown in from the US. His son, Amay (Avinash Tiwary), is also distraught but it is clear that even the bereavement hasn’t improved the strained relationship between the father and son who lives in a separate house. After the last rites are over, Anu is taking her dad with her to the US, but as bad luck would have it, he isn’t allotted a seat on the day they both are scheduled to fly. Since he will now have to fly two days later and since Anu can’t delay her return, the father and son are forced to spend the next 48 hours in each other’s company. What happens during the time they spend together?
Alexander Dinelaris and Boman Irani have written a story which appears cute but it lacks novelty. Their screenplay has some good moments but that’s about all. It is not as if the drama is outstanding or heart-wrenching. Some of the incidents are so predictable that they fail to have the desired impact. Perhaps, the biggest drawback is that the drama doesn’t tug at the heart strings as much as it should’ve, at least not for the masses. The subtle touches will appeal to the classes far more than to the masses. Even the climax doesn’t draw tears from the eyes. The duo’s dialogues, like the screenplay, are realistic.
Boman Irani acts wonderfully as Shiv Mehta. He gives his all to the character. Avinash Tiwary performs ably as Shiv Mehta’s architect-son, Amay. Shreya Chaudhry makes her presence felt with a mature performance as Zara Gonsalves. Puja Sarup has her moments as Anu. Harsh Singh (as Sam Makhija), Siddhartha Basu (as Saumik Sen) and the others lend fair support.
Boman Irani’s direction caters more to the class audience. Gulraj Singh’s background music is ordinary. Krish Makhija’s cinematography is nice. Payal Ghose Kaul’s production designing is proper. Charu Shree Roy’s editing could’ve been sharper.
On the whole, it is good that The Mehta Boys has released on an OTT platform because it is a fair fare for OTT viewing. Had it released in the cinemas, its performance at the box-office would’ve been pathetic.
Released on 7-2-’25 on Amazon Prime.