The Mehta Boys review: A poignant drama with career-best performance by Boman Irani

By Janvi Arora | 07/02/2025 | Categories: Entertainment

Subtle Storytelling and Powerful Emotions of Boman Irani in The Mehta Boys

7th February 2025, Friday

With one of the most moving and restrained performances, The Mehta Boys shows us why Boman Irani is surely one of the gems of actors present in our times. A must-watch not for his performance, mainly, but also for how it evokes unarticulated feelings of life with such grace.

To this day, no director has ever really tapped into Boman Irani’s acting; till now. Boman Irani had to direct this film himself so that he could give the best performance of his career.

Yet, The Mehta Boys becomes much more than a display of Irani’s brilliance. It is a quietly beautiful film-simple yet profound, exceedingly relatable, and emotionally charged. The film feels lived, not performed; every frame is shot with honesty. The carefully woven narrative, rich in nuance, brings glory to what is best described as one among the films that carry the legacy of Hindi parallel cinema. One will agree, the legends of the genre would hold this to be true.

There’s a moment in The Mehta Boys which lingers long after the scene has passed; this moment is replete with grief, memory, and bonding. Irani’s character, still in shock over the loss of his wife, sits down hurriedly to write his will as he is about to walk out of the house he has lived in since birth. His daughter begs him, “Wait till we get home,” to no avail. It is at that moment that everything becomes unbearable for him; he breaks down and cries out, “This is home!” with his trembling voice and teary eyes.

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The Mehta Boys- about loss, distance, and the unexpected bond that forms

Deep down, The Mehta Boys tracks a young architect-being played by Avinash Tiwary-who tries to juggle his career ambitions with personal relationships in Mumbai. His world collapses when his mother dies, and this forces him to develop with his estranged father.

Their relationship is anything but simple—he jokes, “If I tell him to breathe, he’ll hold his breath till he dies.” Yet fate holds some tricks in store, along with enough spunk from the sister (Puja Sarup in an outstanding performance), to make sure that father and son are chained together for some days before Mehta senior can go off to America to settle with his daughter. What takes place in those days is a transformation for both men—not an alteration they ever expected to experience: that’s the essence of The Mehta Boys.

What Makes the Film Work

Soul of The Mehta Boys: Boman Irani. He becomes the character: mannerisms, accent, and body language are so effortless that you forget you’re watching a man you’ve known for over two decades. From mischief to pain, so much is conveyed through just his eyes. He blends restraint with overwhelming emotion; nothing feels performative anymore.

A huge credit for the writing goes to both Irani and Academy Award winner Alexander Dinelaris for building such dimensioned characters. But it’s Irani’s performance that really treads the thin line between eccentricity and emotionality, bringing a sense of realism to it all.

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