Karan tweeted the Kapoor and Sons trailer just hours ago, I have already watched it 3 times, and I have many thoughts-guesses-suppositions.

Here’s the whole thing for reference:

I think Karan might be doing a bit of a bait and switch with us in this film, and in this trailer.  He is basically promising three different films, but I strongly suspect the first two are just camouflage for the third.

Film one: This is the beginning of the trailer.  Breaking it down scene by scene first, we start with the two brothers goofing off and accidentally running their car off the road.  Then we see their parents (Ratna Pathak who I love, and Rajat Kapoor who I love from Dil Chahta Hai and HATE from Monsoon Wedding.  Really, it’s just that he is such a good actor, he really made me believe he was a pedophile!).  The parents are inside a large and comfortable looking house, yelling about money and throwing things at each other.  Siddharth tries to interfere and is yelled at by everyone including his big brother Fawad Khan.  Then we have Rishi, adorably old man-like and having his picture taken and flirting.

Film one looks like a fun and wacky family comedy.  There is bouncy music in the background, parents are fighting, the car is going off the road, but it is all sort of silly and happy.  Like a Housefull film!  Or Shaandar!

Film Two: Alia and Siddarth are sitting in a cemetery and talking, she says “at least you have a family”.  Then Alia and Siddharth in love, then Alia meeting Fawad and having an awkward moment like maybe they knew each other already.  Fawad telling her she is funny and Alia telling him he’s hot and then getting embarrassed. Alia and Siddharth almost kissing during a game of spin the bottle, cut to Alia sneaking up on Fawad late at night and almost kissing him.

Film two is a little more dramatic, but it is just a romance, probably a love triangle between the 2 brothers.  We have seen this plenty of times before!  Everything from Yeh Dillagi to Mere Brother ki Dulhan.  Sure, they’ll be some sweet romantic parts, and some sad brotherly love stuff, but mostly it still looks like a good happy time.

Film Three:  Haven’t seen anything like this before!  The bouncy music drops away and Siddharth asks Fawad “What are you hiding?”  Everyone stares through windows for a bit.  Then Fawad asks Ratna Pathak why she doesn’t stop worrying about him and instead save her own marriage, and she slaps him.  Brief scene of brotherly happiness to remind us what is at stake, then Ratna confronts Siddharth, saying they are all together for the first time in 5 years, why can’t he just be happy.  And Siddharth says “So it is all my fault?”

What the heck is that film?  It feels closest to Karan’s short film for Bombay Talkies, actually.  Which brings me back to the super early rumors about this movie, where it was sort of in the air that maybe one of the brothers was going to be gay.  It is set up as a love triangle between the 3, but what if Alia and Siddharth are in love, and the secret connection she has with Fawad is that she knows he is gay?  What if the huge family conflict is around Fawad’s truth?  Wouldn’t that explain all the storm and drang at the end a lot better than a love triangle?  Especially because there would be an actual real world depth to the plot then.

And then, Epilogue! Dreamy dramatic music playing over a couple of scenes of past happiness, Ratna asking Rajat if they can be happy again, someone choking Fawad, and then we end on Rishi as his voice over says “Before I die, I want a picture of all of us.  And underneath I want it to say ‘Kapoor & Sons-Since 1921.'”

That’s the bit that gets to me, the way he says that line.  When I saw it on the posters and everything, it sounds like a sort of whimsical spin on those signs over businesses.  But having Rishi say it, suddenly it feels like a grasp at pulling the past and the future together, at something ending but something else beginning, at what it means to be old and trying to make meaning of your life.  I don’t know, it just got to me.

If the actual movie is set up like the trailer, if Karan manages to suck us all in to a light-hearted family comedy with a romance, and then sneak in a Section 377 message at the end, all enforced by the gravitas and depth brought in by Rishi, I will be endlessly impressed!

(also, if you haven’t seen it yet, you should definitely watch Karan’s part of the Bombay Talkies anthology.  It’s the first film, and it is freaking deep.  And feels a lot like the possible Film Three here)