Danish Aslam: Dysfunctional family is the new normal in our urban life

Mumbai, Oct 26 Danish Aslam, the director of the recently released web series ‘Reunion – Chal Chalein Apne Ghar’ featuring Lilette Dubey, K.K. Raina, Karishma Irani, Devika Watsa, says that the definition of an ideal family has changed, especially in modern urban life where parents are mostly left alone and emotionally distant from their children when they are busy travelling and conquering the world outside.

The story of the show revolves around a family of four people where parents, played by Lilette and Raina are left alone in Odisha because both their sons left for their professional lives in Mumbai and Delhi. A family crisis forced them to come together and then the story unfolds from there.

Danish, who earlier directed web series like ‘Flesh’, ‘Its Not That Simple’ among others – told IANS: “I think the whole idea of ideal family has changed and so-called ‘dysfunctional’ family is the new normal. There is an emotional distance and equation between parents and children, siblings and other family members do exist in reality and for me, as a filmmaker that is the exciting part. Our show ‘Reunion – Chal Chalein Apne Ghar’ is also a reflection of that. In the last 20 years, the way people are migrating and changing their lifestyle because of education, jobs and globalisation as a whole – ‘your parents know you the best’ is an outdated concept.”

He went on, “The generation gap is increasing and physical distance creates more emotional distance, so even though you could make many video calls to your parents the distance still remains. When you live in a different city, away from your parents, your office colleagues and neighbours become your family and friends because if anything happens to you, they will stand by you first. In our films and shows, such reality is getting reflected, conflicts in a relationship are getting more interesting for our audience.”

‘Reunion – Chal Chalein Apne Ghar’ is a Zoom Studios original released on Zoom Studios’ YouTube channel.