Cast: Rishi Kapoor, Fawad Khan, Sidharth Malhotra, Ratna Pathak Shah, Rajat Kapoor, Alia Bhatt

Direction: Shakun Batra

Produced: Hiroo Yash Johar, Yas Rajbanshi, Apoorva Mehta.

Written: Shakun Batra, Ayesha Devitre Dhillon

Duration: 132 Mins

The opening line of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina transcends the time it was written - "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." The Kapoors can barely keep up a tenuous facade of normality in Tamil Nadu's verdant Coonoor.

They are an odd bunch - there is daadu (Rishi Kapoor), the patriarch with a taste for Mandakini's curves, the candour to admit his preference for porn and the sentimentality to want a complete Kapoor family photograph. His son Harsh (Rajat Kapoor) hardly shares his father's contagious zest for life, choosing instead to being a brooding presence contemplating his business losses and the family's financial crisis. Harsh's wife Sunita (Ratna Pathak Shah) is harried by her husband's suspected infidelity and yearns to branch out into her own catering business. Theirs has always been a tempestuous marriage, replete with fights and make-up sessions until it devolved into simmering resentment for 35 years.

Their sons Arjun (Sidharth Malhotra) and Rahul (Fawad Khan) may be away from the mess in New Jersey and London respectively but grapple with their own insecurities. Arjun is a part-time bartender, full-time aimless job-shifter and a struggling writer. Older brother Rahul is an acclaimed novelist which does not raise Arjun's esteem in the family's eye.

Kapoor senior has a heart attack and so the brothers fly down to visit their ailing grandfather.Their brief sojourn begins to unravel as dark, suppressed secrets must come tumbling out of the closets, among other things. Somewhere in this fracas comes Tia Malik (Alia Bhatt), who adds her own matchstick to trigger the inferno. The chaos ensues, all while Harsh's brother Shashi (Vikram Kapadia) flies in with his family (at least they are normal in comparison).

The tense family exchanges are punctuated by frequent relief provided by Kapoor senior, who insists on watching porn on the "iPapad" and the other kooky fellow residents dotting the municipality. Jeffery F. Bierman's cinematography keeps the place heavenly, even if the characters are feeling less than peachy.

Kapoor and Sons is as charming as its setting. It may be thin on plot and would read predictably in a paperback novel on a rainy day but it works onscreen with its refreshing character banter (Shakun Batra and Ayesha DeVitre keep it natural), cast performances and restrained histrionics, like a valve that did not completely go off. Even if it is the story of two brothers, you see it unfold from the varied perspective of all the characters.

Quirky, poignant and bittersweet, Kapoor and Sons presents a dysfuctional family, which is more lovable and relatable than we realise.