Why ‘Kapoor & Sons’ Couldn’t Be Made Today

The prodigal son Rahul (Fawad Khan), a London-based bestselling author, is visiting his family home in Coonoor, India, which is falling apart. The plumber is trying to fix a leak. The younger son Arjun (Sidharth Malhotra) must take the dog outside. The father (Rajat Kapoor) is talking about the expensive medical treatments for his father. The mother (Ratna Pathak Shah) is annoyed that her husband keeps borrowing money from his brother to pay for these bills. The plumber needs help holding the pipes.

The mother says the family can use her savings, only for her husband to reveal he’s already spent it all. Arjun returns with the dog and the two brothers start fighting about who can help their family out, with Rahul claiming Arjun can’t afford it. Soon enough, the plumber is done with the job. “How much did it cost?” the father asks. “Well, whatever you can afford at this bad time…” the plumber trails off. And so goes the chaos and magic of director Shakun Batra’s Kapoor & Sons (2016), a movie that laid bare the messiness and secrets of the people you think you know best.

A decade later, the film still hits, a time capsule of an era when “mid-budget” movies could have disproportionate impact, when an actor from across the border could take on roles most others had said no to, and when a family didn’t have to be perfect to win your hearts. Batra sat down with The Juggernaut to explain how, exactly, he got away with it and what he’d do differently, ten years later.