‘Mentalhood’: Lessons on parenting

Eight years after she appeared in Vikram Bhatt’s supernatural thriller Dangerous Ishq, Karisma Kapoor has made a comeback with Mentalhood. During her best days, Karisma’s dedicated followers gravitated to the theatres to welcome her films. Her return, although on laptop and mobile phone screens, would have generated a few ripples of excitement among those fans from the not-too-distant past.

Mentalhood, a domestic drama streaming on ZEE5 and ALT Balaji, consists of ten short episodes. Created by Ekta Kapoor and written by Suhash Khabya and Ritu Bhatia, the series can be binge-watched simply because the running time of these episodes varies between 18 and 23 minutes. The subplots contributing to the big picture don’t drag, which has been a well-known weakness of Balaji soap operas for the television.

The series about parenting has a group of mothers at the centre. Different as chalk and cheese, they have children to take care of. The character with the maximum screen time is Meira Sharma (Karisma), a mother of three with a workaholic hubby (Sanjay Suri, bespectacled and with grey sideburns). Meira had won the Miss Kanpur contest, but she has relinquished her desire for walking the ramp to play the mother. She also writes a blog under the pseudonym Mentalmom in which she shares her nuggets of wisdom about motherhood.

While Karisma is reasonably good, Tillotama Shome as the Punjabi mother, who is also dealing with misogyny, delivers the best performance. Shruti Seth as a footloose single mother and Shilpa Shukla as a career-oriented one are noteworthy, too.

The writers deserve a round of applause for creating Akash (Dino Morea), a single parent with two kids through surrogacy. Gifted with an interesting role, Morea delivers a polished performance.

Competitiveness among modern-day parents, who want to see their kids outperform others and apply pressure on them, is becoming increasingly commonplace. Mentalhood reminds us of this everyday reality, possibly with the intention that it may not be such a good thing after all.

The series is, ultimately, about parents and their struggles while dealing with their children in day-to-day life. Every kid is different from the other, and hence, handling the young one with the right degree of sensitivity and maturity is necessary. That, in short, is the understated message.

The good news about Mentalhood is that it doesn’t sermonise for a split second. Light-hearted in tone, it has enough humorous moments to make one smile even though the subject is serious. That the theme is relatable for the urban Indian viewer is the other reason that keeps one interested. Check it out while you stay indoors during lockdown 2.0.