Parenthood has never been easy, but it is more confusing than ever for the millennials, who are entering the club for the first time. The societal fabric, lifestyle dynamics, and living standards are in total contrast to their childhood. They are more self-aware and sometimes even overly cautious of parenting and childhood traumas – thanks to the endless exposure to self-proclaimed parenting mentors on social media.

Raat Jawaan Hai Review: The plot Sony LIV’s latest original, Raat Jawaan Hai, is a similar story of three millennial childhood best friends who are juggling individuality, personal goals and adult friendships while trying to nurture their young ones in the best possible manner. The trio includes Avinash (Varun Sobti): a loving stay-at-home dad, Suman (Priya Bapat): a new mom with social anxiety, and Radhika (Anjali Anand): the confident, lively leader of the group and daunting mother to a three-year-old.

The close-knit trio is a typical bunch of friends who always have each other’s back. They would turn to each other for gossip, shopping recommendations, heart-to-heart conversations, and, of course, last-minute babysitting requests. Their WhatsApp group “Raat Jawaan Hai” is their ultimate saviour and buzzes around the day.

Raat Jawaan Hai Review: Characters We are introduced to our protagonists in a park where their kids are having a play date, and they are busy ranting about their tightly wound schedules. Their usual banter is interrupted by Avinash bringing up the idea of watching Avengers: Endgame — releasing later that week – and relentlessly convincing the other two to join him. As expected, a circus of hunting babysitters, buttering relatives, and frantic attempts at clearing schedules follows. There are nostalgic sighs reminiscing the luxury of spontaneity they used to have and anecdotes from their old Goa trips.

The story continues in the same light-hearted tone, filled with cusses, dirty jokes, playful banter and more. We see them getting excited for their first family selfie in a government office, silently screaming in traffic (of course, they can’t trigger the sleeping kid in the backseat), and their little ones blurting the f-words they picked up earlier.

Although the initial episodes feel breezy, the tone stays superficial, and overly desperate to make the viewers laugh. A lot of cheap jokes — which have already been exploited beyond exhaustion hundreds of times before — land badly. Some are point-blank, irksome and cringe. Come on! We don’t need more jokes on coffee made with breast milk or parents forwarding “Good Morning” texts to their entire friend list.

However, the series takes a refreshing turn fourth episode onwards. While until now the show was merely a compilation of privileged adults complaining about their children and cancelled plans, the storyline becomes more mature and engaging now. We explore the dynamics of their decades-long friendship and are served with an intimate view of their dilemmas, marital discords, ambitions, and often ignored aspects of parenthood. The refreshing touch of director Sumeet Vyas’s previously loved shows like TVF Tripling – known for their relatability, genuine humour, and tender portrayals — is fervously felt. The contrast between the two halves of the show is brilliant; drawing a comparison between the face we often put forward for social validation and our actual struggles.

There is a particularly well-written scene where Suman nervously tells her friends about her birthday party from the fifth standard when she was hurt when her friends chose her much cooler older sister over her. The narration is quickly followed by a self-conscious monologue of her being less cool and worthy of their friendship. “I always invested more in our friendship because I knew that you two are much cooler than me, and if I didn’t make extra efforts, you’d drift away”. The entire sequence has been brilliantly written well-performed, and shows how the impact of seemingly small childhood events may get carried on till much later in life.

Suman’s arc of self-doubt and co-dependance also make an appearance later in the show, resonating beautifully beyond the screen each time.

Another arc where the show excels is Avinash, who has developed a rather beautiful bond with his newborn and doesn’t mind giving up his job to take care of him. He is sensitive and considerate, and he is an ideal representation of what modern me ought to be. Even though he lives in a posh society, surrounded by well-educated and modern people, he is often at the receiving end of ridicule and judgmental looks. The show has done an impressive exploration of the modern paternal fabric. In a scene, we see a teary-eyed Avinash torn between continuing to spend his days as a stay-at-home dad or taking up his dream job with a handsome package. “Promise me, you won’t take your first steps or say your first words on a weekday. Reserve those for weekends,” he tells his adorable kid. Even though the theme has been covered previously in films as well as television, Sobti’s portrayal is heart-touching. The show lays bare the hypocritical standards of society without taking over a preachy tone.

We also see a satirical mockery of the current education system in one of the episodes when we see Radhika deciding on a playschool for her daughter. “We offer robotics and coding courses to our students. You need them to be ahead in race than others,” she is told in one of the prospective schools. One was asked about lessons in alphabet and counting; YouTube and the Internet are accredited for those jobs.

Raat Jawaan Hai Review: Verdict Overall, Raat Jawaan is a heartwarming series that explores the dynamics of adult friendships and parenthood. It strikes a beautiful balance between the two, carefully avoiding one theme taking over the other. The story flows effortlessly across the episodes and ranks high on relatability. While it could have avoided the unnecessary cusses and dirty jokes, it raises important questions on modern relationships and parental guilt. The show gives a realistic picture of modern parenthood dotted with clueless adults trying to avoid the mistakes their parents made; ready to make their own. If you are a parent, do not avoid this one.

Rating: 7/10

Imagine watching a water bottle falling and your immediate thought is that your best friend would trip on it, hurt themselves or die in a freak incident. Or when your hands brush past someone you fancy, instead of feeling the thrill of attraction, you withdraw in horror — scared, panicked, teary-eyed. While these might not be the regular reactions of someone with a healthy brain, many amongst us, suffering from mental distress and anxiety battle this every day.

This World Mental Health Day, Sony Liv has dropped a new anthology series with six standalone stories on various mental distresses such as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), schizophrenia, eating disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and more.

What makes this show distinct from typical ones that touch upon real-life issues, is that it ditches cinematic dramatization and information overload for a realistic portrayal of how these issues affect the everyday lives of humans. The setup is relatable, and it feels that we’ve met these characters around us.

In these six different stories about mental health, we see a corporate employee fretting about calories, a teenage boy being bullied in his village, and a man cutting off his friends after an ugly breakup. While some of the stories start right from the distressing symptoms, others gradually ease into it.

Shivani Raghuvanshi suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder in Malika Kumar’s The Daily Puppet Show (Episode 6)

The show presses on the commonality of such issues and how easily we undermine the numbers. It makes a careful choice to pick up stories across the economic strata, from financially struggling families and middle-class abodes to the upper middle-class and well-to-do clans. Although the show doesn’t delve into the deeper details of disorders, with each episode spanning roughly half an hour, it gives a fair idea of what it’s like to live with a specific mental health disorder.

The story that I found the strongest was Sahaan Hattangadi’s Purple Duniya. The writing and the performances shine in this unpredictable tale. Two minutes into the episode, we see a purple rubber duck floating in an apartment, flooded with water, vibing to rave music. Okay, Hattangadi, you have my full attention.

We then meet our actual protagonist, Raag (Tanmay Dhanania), a 30-year-old who lost his job and was dumped by his fiancé a few months ago. Since then, he has isolated himself and doesn’t pick up the calls of his friends and family. Sounds dark? Well, here’s the twist: he is happy, energetic, and super chill. He sees the world around him in the colour of purple — traffic lights, nameplates, and even trucks — as he snakes through the roads on his bike at questionably high speeds and keeps zoning out.

Tanmay Dhanania’s Purple Duniya (Episode 2) is an interesting representation of mental health issues in modern times

Throughout the episode, I found myself googling, trying to decode the issue the episode was dealing with. The story kept me invested throughout and surprised me towards the end. I wish I could tell more, but anything that I say now would be a spoiler.

My next favourite was Sumeet Vyas’s Caged, helmed by Danny Mamik along with Hattangadi. Here we see the unlikely bond between Vyas, the city-returned son of the wealthiest man in the village, and a shy teenage boy played by Mohammad Samad Tumbbad. The latter gets bullied around and is heavily misunderstood and lonely. He wants to study literature, but his parents are forcing him to take up medicine as a career.

Mohammad Samad has given one of the finest performances in the show

Both these characters are wrapped in inhibitions of their own and find solace in each other’s company. The entire episode is poetic and well-written. Samad’s performance is one of the best in the entire series. His emotions, inner struggles, and suffocation resonate though the screen.

Next was Shreyas Talpade’s Swagatam, where he is suffering from schizophrenia. He no longer has a job, is supported by his wife, and lives in a constant paranoia of someone chasing him. His condition hasn’t advanced so much that he hallucinates, but he can’t be left unattended and spends the day with a help group during the day.

Sukriti Tyagi’s story gives a careful portrayal of schizophrenic patients, treating them as humans. The condition is portrayed through near visual trickery, too. All the scenes with Talpade have a dull yellowish tint to them. As soon as he exits the screen, everything is brightly lit and lively. Swagatam also excels in showing the struggles of families of schizophrenic patients, who suffer physical, emotional, social, and financial tolls. And while the story’s momentum keeps ebbing, Tyagi’s treatment of the subject is entertaining and informative.

Shweta Basu Prasad has done an impressive portrayal of a PTSD patient in Aditya Sarpotdar’s Bhanwar (Episode 3)

Shweta Basu Prasad and Priya Bapat’s performances were the highlights of the anthology. Both women, one from a village and the other from the city, dread intimacy. They cry, shiver and even go breathless at the touch of the opposite gender. They play women suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and their portrayal is one of the best I’ve seen in recent films on the subject. I wish their episode — Bhanwar — knew more about what to do with these amazing artists.

Zindaginama has good intentions but isn’t able to keep up the momentum. While some stories will speak to you effortlessly, others will fail to keep you invested. The latter ones feel like an unfinished job, with a random slice of someone’s life being presented. Despite tackling important themes and lesser-known aspects of mental health issues tactfully, the show falters in execution. Films and television shows with social messages — especially such sensitive ones — need to walk a thin line, balancing facts and information with entertainment, so they don’t seem preachy. That’s how you keep people glued while raising awareness about a taboo subject. Because what’s the point of an informational show if an ignorant person gets bored and turns it off?

And it doesn’t help that the quality of tone of the six stories oscillate wildly with each episode. While I really want to recommend a few stories out of the anthology, the rest can be easily skipped. Nevertheless, Zindaginama is an earnest attempt at normalising mental health issues and humanising people who suffer from them, and it deserves appreciation for the same.

Overall Rating: 6/10

Episodic Rating:

Purple Duniya: 3.5/5

Caged: 3/5

Swagatam: 2.5/5

Bhanwar: 2.5/5

Puppet Show: 2/5

One Plus One: 2/5