Raat Jawaan Hai

The millennial attempting to retain individuality and identity, while holding on to old friendships and coping with being a new parent, is a demographic that has hardly, if ever, been represented on the Indian screen. Even if it has been, it has been reduced to a strand or a subplot in a coming-of-age story. The fact that it even goes down this route immediately sets Raat Jawaan Hai apart. That it does it well, making its eight episodes a breezy watch which you want to hold on to and hope it doesn’t end, is a huge feather in its cap. This is a definite clutter-breaker in the Indian streaming space. One which has been long overdue.

आम सी कहावत है कि मां-बाप बनने के बाद आपकी अपनी जिंदगी, अपनी खुशी बेमाने हो जाती है। तब बच्चा, उसकी जरूरतें, उसकी खुशियां ही सबसे ऊपर होती हैं। काफी हद तक होता भी ऐसा ही है, पर पैरंटिंग के नए मायने समझाने वाली वेब सीरीज रात जवान है आपसे कहती है कि नहीं बॉस, एक अच्छा पैरंट बनने के लिए अपनी खुशियों की कुर्बानी देना जरूरी नहीं है। थोड़ी मशक्कत जरूर करनी पड़ेगी, मगर आप अपने करियर, खुशियों, बच्चों सबको साथ लेकर भी चल सकते हैं। खास बात यह है कि ख्याति आनंद पुथरन की लिखी और सुमित व्यास (परमानेंट रूममेट्स, ट्रिपलिंग) निर्देशित यह प्यारी सी फील गुड कहानी ये बड़ी-बड़ी बातें बिना किसी लेक्चरबाजी के मजे-मजे में कह जाती है।

Three childhood friends and stay-at-home parents Avinash, Radhika and Suman come to terms with adulthood, marriage and parenting in a metropolis, dealing with one blow after the other. While Avinash is in no mood to return to work soon, Radhika is in two minds about taking up a job. Suman, content with motherhood, struggles to take a stance for herself.

It’s been a while since we’ve seen a comedy that you can see yourself in. SonyLIV’s Raat Jawaan Hai focuses on a trio of friends who are there for each other through thick and thin. Developed by Khyati Anand-Puthran and Sumeet Vyas, the series features very real characters, the kind of people you’ve met in life. Backed by a solid cast who deliver genuine performances, Raat Jawaan Hai is the feel-good watch for this month, nay, this year!

Raat Jawaan Hai unfolds as an uncharacteristically warm and vibrant answer to a question popular Hindi cinema is too streamlined to ask: what happens after the end credits of the quintessential buddy comedy have rolled? Call it “Little Things for young parents” or “Dil Chahta Hai for reluctant adults”, but the fact that Raat Jawaan Hai fuses two seemingly exclusive genres of life — the friendship triangle and the marital drama — is, in itself, a minor triumph.