Love triangle, troubled family and sibling rivalry fill up the first trailer of Kapoor & Sons

When we heard that Karan Johar was making a movie based on a family with two brothers, we were reminded of the success that Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham was, even though coming to think of it, K3G was nothing but an overdramatic run of emotional problems that could have ended with a round table discussion amongst the elders of the family.

When we further came to know that Indian heartthrob Sidharth Malhotra would be starring in the movie along with his Pakistani counterpart Fawad Khan, we breathed a sigh of relief that these two almost of the same age actors won’t be leaving us in tears, sitting on a white bench not once but twice in the movie.

When we came to know that Alia Bhatt would be the female lead of the movie, we wondered why there were two actors, who were playing real brothers, and one actress in this romantic comedy. However, since Indian cinema is at an experimental stage right now, we thought that it would be better to wait for the trailer before passing any judgement.

Now that the trailer is out, we have only one thing to say, cliché.

The trailer starts with Rahul and Arjun, played by Khan and Malhotra, driving on an empty road in the wee hours of night, with Khan, in his thick Pakistani accent complaining about the driver of another car who is needlessly honking at them. The scene establishes a healthy relation between the two of them.

The scene then shifts to Rajat Kapoor and Ratna Pathak Shah, the parents of Rahul and Arjun, who are always locking horns with each other, even in front of their children. Normal for Punjabis, we think and move ahead to Dadu (Rishi Kapoor), the quintessential wheelchair bound grandfather of a Punjabi family, well dressed and counting the last and happiest days of his life.

Next scene shows us that even the younger Kapoor lads are at loggerheads with each other, throwing things at each other which if hit the right target, would make them regret their existence for the whole life. Again, this too is normal for Punjabi siblings.

Alia is then introduced as Arjun’s friend and possible love interest, who coincidentally, also knows Rahul from her past. While she has drinks with Arjun and his friends, she is seen calling Rahul hot, and even kissing him (a fake one, of course, given Fawad’s love for his people’s emotions and more than that, his wife back home).

The trailer then gets intense, when it’s clear that love is blossoming in not two but three young hearts, out of which two belong to real brothers, leading to a series of questions, tears and the revelation of Kapoor family having some secrets only they know of.
The trailer ends with Rishi Kapoor saying that all he wants is a family photo with the title Kapoor & Sons, since 1921.

Overall, the two-and-a-half minute trailer takes us to a Punjabi family with two sons, who both get into a love triangle and question their priorities in life, but we are not impressed.

All the actors of the movie have, time and again, have proved their mettle, and we doubt if they would fail to deliver good performances in the movie, but what we don’t understand is, why weren’t better scenes from the movie chosen for the first trailer of the movie, and why have the audiences been kept in the dark? After all, it’s a romantic comedy drama, and not a suspense thriller that we should be guessing what’s going on in the minds of the actors.

While the actors look promising and the posters look fun, let’s hope that the next trailers of the movie come out well planned, and are able to raise our expectations from the movie, which sadly have been lowered by the first trailer.

Catch the trailer here.