Rating : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre : Documentary
Year : 2023
Season: 1, Episodes: 4
Director : Smriti Mundhra
Cast : Yash Chopra, Aditya Chopra, Unday Chopra, Pamela Chopra
Kid rating : G
The Chopras of Bollywood are like the Kapoors of Bollywood, only they’re behind the camera instead of on it. This 4 part docuseries on Netflix takes a closer look at the Chopra clan – specifically Yash Raj Films founder Yash Raj Chopra, his wife Pam, his sons Aditya and Uday, and the tremendous impact they and their Production House YRF Studios have had on the Hindi film industry.
The series is made out of a set of interviews, film-footage and on-set informal videos all put together skillfully to give us a picture of the Chopras, their keen eye and their business. It goes chronologically starting with Yash Raj’s initial films, his increasing sure-footedness in the industry, followed by the founding of the production house and Aditya’s fine-tuning the Yash Raj legacy.
Director Yash Raj is responsible for creating the aesthetic romance genre we have today in Bollywood; beautiful locales, expensive sets, sporty cars, the subtle sheen of money and of course good looking heroes and heroines. The first episode of the series pays homage to him.
The remaining 3 episodes focus on Aditya Chopra and YRF Studios. Aditya, Yash Chopra’s older son, takes on the directorial mantle from his father, while younger son Uday Chopra harbors a secret desire to be a hero on screen. While Aditya succeeds, belting out hits like Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, the Shahrukh-Kajol starrer which is still playing in Indian theatres 25 years later, Uday, introduced in movies like Dhoom and Mohabbatein, cannot quite sustain audience attention.
With the advent of foreign production houses in India, forward-looking Aditya gets Yash Chopra to set up their own studio, recognizing the need to tell Indian stories from the Indian viewpoint. And he talks about this when he is interviewed on-screen, the on-screen interview apparently a big deal because Adiya is a notorious recluse, refusing even to publicize his own films. With the studio, YRF turns producer and they do very well here too, veering away from the traditional romantic genre with films like Dhoom, Band Baaja Baraat, and Bunty aur Babli.
Indian-American director Smriti Mundhra helms The Romantics wonderfully. You’ve probably already seen her work if you’ve watched the Netflix documentary A Suitable Girl. She also produced the reality tv show Indian Matchmaking. While The Romantics is very different from A Suitable Girl, Suitable delving into a woman’s standing in Indian society vis-a-vis marriage and the pressure to fit into a traditional family structure, you can see the same thoughtful, nuanced take in both.
The Romantics is glossy and rosy-hewed – it’s all heart and pearls of wisdom, from the perspective of an ardent fan. Quite watchable!
Kidwise: Clean
