Even though the promo screamed out loud that it’s a boring show, I thought of giving Mind the Malhotras a shot. As the show progressed, the dialogues, the expressions, the scenes all were giving out a message, loud and clear – this show doesn’t seem Indian. That is when Google and Wikipedia came to the rescue.
And my judgement was spot on, Mind the Malhotras is based on Israeli comedy, La Famiglia. Looks like Applause Entertainment is focussing on recreating content and not creating original content which is perfectly fine but only if it is Indianized. Even Chinese in India is Indian, then why not the web series? You could find the international flavour in all these Indian remakes by Applause Entertainment, may it be Hostages, Criminal Justice, or Mind the Malhotras. Our culture and lifestyle are different. We are altogether a different set of people who connect with each other emotionally. Our focus has always been less on the practical side and more on the emotional side. These series lack that exact Indian flavour – emotions. Even the advertising industry sells products by selling emotions. The web should also stick to it.
There was a scene in Mind the Malhotras where Mini Mathur advises a little boy, her son’s friend to stay away from her kid as he is not a good influence on the boy’s life. To convince him, she tells him that he is a good leader and he shouldn’t follow her kid. He should, in fact, lead the pack. How does she do that? By giving him vague mischief ideas with a straight face like locking up a kid in the bathroom. If a non-Indian mother does that, we would laugh at the insanity, but we can’t digest the fact that Mothers in India can advise one child to lock another in the bathroom so that he leads the pack and not be her son’s follower. I mean, who does that? It wasn’t even funny. At least people in India won’t find it funny.
Honestly, I could not watch even one complete episode of Mind the Malhotras. It was that boring. It could have been bearable if the casting would have been right and the direction would have been powerful. Cyrus Sahukar and Mini Mathur are misfits for comedy. The duo adds to the frustration.
My advice? Watch at your own risk.
Where to Watch? Amazon Prime