There is nothing in this five-part series that we don’t know, or that we haven’t seen before. A nuclear family so engrossed in its digital world that it has no space for any closeness within the family fold.
In fact, Pankaj Kapoor had last year starred in a film called Binny & Family based on a similar premise.
So what makes Thode Door Thode Paas worth our while? Nothing! And that’s its USP. It doesn’t aspire to be ground-breaking at any level. And therein lies its charm… if you want to call it that.
This series, directed by Ajay Bhuyan, will rewind you to those times when families sat together at the dinner table, or in front of their television sets to watch Buniyaad and Kyunki… Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi.
The Mehta family’s digital priorities are largely over-stated: in Episode 1, Pankaj Kapoor is snubbed by his granddaughter (Ayesha Kaduskar). In Episode 2, the same sequence is repeated, this time in reverse, with the grandpa reminding the girl to knock before entering.
No one is required to be tactful, let alone context-savvy.
The symmetry of nemesis afforded to fiction and denied in real life narrows the reach and impact of the series. Kunaal Roy Kapoor and Mona Singh, as Pankaj Kapoor’s son and daughter-in-law, struggle to give an extra dimension to their stereotypical parts of self-consumed professionals.
After a while, they simply give up and conform to the need of the hour: just be symbols rather than real.
Where the series fails even more resoundingly is when the plot moves out of the Mehtas’ home in search of relationships beyond the genetical. Mayur More, as the Mehta daughter’s love interest, feels like he is taking a break from his IIT coaching classes for a bit of diversion on the sly.
Dadajee Pankaj Kapoor lures the family into the domestic nest with the promise of monetary gains. But here lies the catch: the series doesn’t want to demonize the family by showing them to be excessively materialistic. Ruinously, the Mehta family is neither constructed with the care to be credible beyond the unidimensional, nor are they interesting enough to be outright caricatural. The plan for “digital fasting” fails even before it starts.
Also Read: Jassi Weds Jassi review: Amusing in parts, falters later
