Single Papa

A man with a baby in his arms is strangely sexy. I’ve read that they get more swipes on dating apps, irrespective of whose baby it is. This aesthetic existed long before older and/or burlier men entered the “Daddy” tribe. The next best thing, I guess, is the visual of a man who cooks. These are territories our fathers and grandfathers rarely ventured into, and when men step into anything non-traditional, the attractiveness meter (sometimes) fires up.

Given Hindi cinema’s long-standing relationship with hypermasculinity, it’s almost refreshing to come across a life comedy named Single Papa. Even the premise is a neat change — a single-parenthood story revolving around the kind of North Indian man-child character who would usually be the tortured hero of a romantic Bollywood film. The icing on this gluten-free cake is that Kunal Kemmu plays this man. For anyone who has followed Hindi film in the last few decades, it’s hard not to have a soft spot for former child star Kemmu — an underutilised, immensely likable and flexible performer who’s made a career out of not fitting into the conventional-star mold. I, for one, am always happy to see him on (or off) the screen. The vibes are just right, and there’s an authenticity about him that’s easy to enjoy.

मां की ममता पर तो हमने बहुत कहानियां देखी हैं, मगर बाप की ‘बापता’ यानी बच्चे की परवरिश में पिता की अहमियत पर किस्से कम ही हैं। समाज के इसी स्टीरियोटाइप को तोड़ने की अच्छी कोशिश करती है वेब सीरीज सिंगल पापा। यह सीरीज एक सिंगल मर्द के बच्चा गोद लेने के संघर्षों, अकेले उसकी परवरिश की चुनौतियों की कभी गुदगुदाती, तो भावुक करती दास्तान है।

What happens when a freshly-divorced dude decides that he wants to become a single papa? Gaurav Gahlot (Kunal Kemmu) and wife (Isha Talwar) have an amicable parting: he desperately wants a baby, she doesn’t. So when a baby appears out of the blue, our GG does the only thing his heart has desired for a long time: give the tyke his name, and bring him home. Except, he does it the other way round, and all hell breaks loose in GG’s conservative Punjabi household when the delighted scion appears with his tiny bundle, heading down the road towards formula and diapers and colic and sleepless nights.

Can a man become a single parent in India? The odds are stacked against him in the Netflix series Single Papa. Kunal Kemmu plays the man in question, a divorced man who finds purpose in becoming a father to a baby abandoned in his car. The zany comedy, created by Neeraj Udhwani and Ishita Moitra, has an equally zany cast of characters in this slightly fantasy path to adoption. Even while the scenarios grow wild, the heart of Single Papa is sincere as it bats for gender equality and supports adoption.