The night is always young for three long-term friends confronting the indisputable end of their shared childhoods: the arrival of their own children.
Raat Jawaan Hai finds Radhika (Anjali Anand), Suman (Priya Bapat) and Avinash (Barun Sobti) steeped in feeding, burping and nappy-changing. They have learnt to talk in whispers when their tots are asleep. Going to a movie is nearly as difficult as making one.
These fast friends dissect their challenges over a WhatsApp group called Raat Jawaan Hai. They also meet frequently to swap notes on imagined or actual crises.
There is the lack of a sex drive – and the difficulties of coitus when the child decides to interrupt. There are doubts about the best parenting strategies. More importantly, there is the existential dread of losing individuality.
The Sony LIV show captures the seriocomic travails of first-time parents with wit, warmth and acuity. Apart from examining parenthood, Raat Jawaan Hai follows the friendship among adults who have been together for so long that they know other’s rhythms and fault lines – or so they believe.
The eight-episode Hindi series has been written by Khyati Anand-Puthran and developed by her and director Sumeet Vyas. Anand-Puthran’s ear for conversational dialogue that is hilariously on point without trying to be punchline-clever combines to superb effect with Vyas’s attentiveness to the staging and performances.
The episodes flow easily into each other as they take in each of the character arcs. Radhika is the group’s leader – outspoken, unafraid to be demanding, but prone to acting out too. She is also the oldest parent, with a daughter named Kadambari (Jia Aman Yagnik).
Avinash is a wisecracking, laidback SAHD – stay-at-home dad – content to coo over his son Rahi (Raayan Nikhil Kanchan). As the mother of Eshaan (Khushvik Sharma), Suman is always trying to please her more confident friends, her oddball husband, her well-meaning parents and her overbearing in-laws.
There are ups and downs, ebbs and flows, with Avinash’s wife Swadha (Hasleen Kaur), Suman’s husband Sattu (Vikram Singh Chauhan) and Radhika’s spouse Rishi (Priyansh Jora) on the fringes of what Swadha calls “a three-person cult”.
One of the finest episodes revolves around the union of all three families, which proves that mixing marriage and friendship is often a terrible idea. This episode surfaces the tensions that have been simmering among the friends and between the partners too.
There is peak honesty as well as maximum cringe in the reluctance to confront unavoidable truths. The realisation that family expansion requires sacrifice plus compromise adds a bittersweet note to the narrative, alongside setting up a possible second season.
Raat Jawaan Hai is very funny when needed, but also sober enough when the going gets too tough for the characters. The unhurried storytelling, which has been skilfully edited by Namrata Rao, allows the problems of each of the friends to breathe, while also letting the cast thrive.
The lead actors brilliantly bring out the overall cosiness resulting from the feeling of eavesdropping on real people rather than fictional characters. Barun Sobti, Anjali Anand and Priya Bapat not only give the feeling of having been friends for decades, but also convincing parents to the adorable actors who play their children.
Each of the performers has scenes that play to their individual talents – Sobti having a “man-to-man chat” with his infant, Bapat desperately trying to get honest with her screen spouse, Anand facing Radhika’s worst nightmare in the episode aptly titled Worst Birthday Ever. There’s also a memorable cameo by Umesh Jagtap as Suman’s father.
Some of the more challenging aspects of juggling career and parenting, especially for the women, get conveniently resolved (economic class isn’t a consideration, given the overall plush environs). Fortunately, Raat Jawaan Hai doesn’t bite off more than it can chew, focusing on delivering a carefully prepared feast of laughs, frowns and tears.
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