Yeh Meri Family Review

Set in the “summer of 98”, the comedy-drama follows the Gupta family as it negotiates one particularly heated season. Starring Akarsh Khurana, Mona Singh and Vishesh Bansal.

The show revisits those growing years through the travails of 13-year-old Harshu over one summer holiday. It cleverly recreates the self-centred world view of a teenager yearning to break out of limitations imposed by his age and seek greener pastures. When he’s not warring with his mother or sparring with his brother, Harshu is busy agonising over the lack of excitement in his life, frequently turning to his not-older-but-wiser friend for advice.

Yeh Meri Family’s strong point is the way it captures the essence of the ’90s, a time when India was on the cusp of economic, social and cultural change. That conflict between old and new infused an inter-generational dynamic exclusive to that era, which is aptly reflected in Harshu’s relationship with his parents.

Each episode also offers tangible proof of its milieu. The first episode, for instance, sets the scene with posters of ’90s hits including Border, Aflatoon and Pyaar Kiya Toh Darna Kya haphazardly pasted on a roadside wall. Soon after, it relives that other great agony of the decade – the ordeal of winding a cassette tape come loose.

Harshu’s relationship with Shanky creates the best best lines and laughs. Wise beyond his years, Shanky is Harshu’s friend and strategist, frequently reprimanding him or giving him sagely advice as he helps him negotiate the many mundane crises that seem life-defining to the adolescent mind. The two share a particularly memorable moment when Shanky guides Harshu through the process of buying a slam book – that other marker of adolescence – in a stationery shop. Harshul wants the diary so that he can find out what the girl he has a crush on thinks about him.

Ultimately, even though the plot is thin and the humour sparse, the show works by laying on the charm thick and adding a liberal dose of nostalgia, which carries half the story-telling weight.