’90s NOSTALGIA
Reminiscent of the popular US sitcom The Wonder Years, The Viral Fever’s latest web series, Sameer Saxena’s Yeh Meri Family, is a nostalgic look at adolescence in the late 1990s—when Indian kids drank Goldspot and rooted for Shaktimaan and their parents covered the living room television with plastic. But its 12-year-old protagonist’s deadpan commentary on parents’ expectations from their kids and its delightful portrait of friendship make the show resonant, whether you grew up in that era or not.
Harshu Gupta (Vishesh Bansal) is the troublesome second child who spends the two episodes available so far berating his mother (Mona Singh of Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahi fame) and seeking advice from Shanku (Prasad Reddy, adorable), his geeky, wiser and lovingly sardonic best buddy. Akarsh Khurana plays Harshu’s indulgent, clueless father and Ahan Nirban is Harshu’s smarter elder brother.
Set in April 1998, the show starts off with Harshu making grand plans of doing nothing during summer vacations. His mother has different ideas, and gets him a private tutor for Hindi. In episode two, Harshu’s ‘wild’ birthday plans—to watch Raja Hindustani in a cinema solely for the Karisma Kapoor smooch and have food with Shanku at their favourite joint—go kaput. This time, his mother wants to throw a bash at home by inviting all of the colony’s kids. Writer Saurabh Khanna effectively captures the intricacies of adolescence: the innocence, the urge to discover the outside world and the harmless rebelliousness. Being cool in YMF universe is to throw tantrums, deceive parents and believe that family is the obstacle in your independence. Because Yeh Meri Family is sponsored by a mutual fund website, some obvious ‘product placement’ investment tips pepper Khurana’s portrayal of the dutiful patriarch. And hopefully Singh’s role of an exhausted and exhausting mother will become meatier as the series progresses. But thus far there’s lot to appreciate—such as a scene where Shanku narrates a story to inspire Harshu only to realise it’s a literal translation of Bryan Adams’ chartbuster Summer of ’69. The show never judges or mocks its characters. It just lets them be.