While Linklater’s Boyhood captured a universal childhood everyone related to, Sameer Saxena’s Yeh Meri Family feels closer to home. Calling it a trip down memory lane, or simply calling it nostalgic would be an over-generalization. Because Yeh Meri Family is so much more. The simplest stories are the hardest to tell, and ones which tug at your heartstrings are even harder.

So what is the show all about? This 7 episodic series is centered around a summer in 1998. And filled within those three months are smaller nuances so well thought through, researched and written, you cannot stop smiling. It’s almost like they travelled back in time to relive those moments before bringing it alive for us.

The beauty here is in the details. The atmosphere feels like time plucked out from 20 years ago. There’s no sepia or extensive art direction, and yet there’s a richness to be found in every frame. You can find it in the posters put up on the walls, or the loose fitting tucked in polo T-shirts, the old CRT TVs encased in a wall unit.

The same detailing is found in the stories as well. Right from the wrapping paper for school notebooks, the name sticker on those books, the hand-me-down textbooks, the slam books, the Milton water bottles, the late night FTV escapades, or even the obsession with trump cards, billboard cassettes and the Walkman. To put it succinctly, Yeh Meri Family is woven together with gold.  

But what makes this classic a classic are the characters. You’ll see your mom in Mona Singh’s obsession with hosting birthday parties and cooking everyone’s favourite sweets. Her understated performance is so real, you forget she’s an actor and start relating with her. In Akarsh Khurana, you’ll find shades of your father too, the nonchalant hardworking honest man who dishes out knowledge without ever preaching it. There’s an instant likability that Akarsh brings to the part which is so earnest, you wouldn’t mind asking an advice or two.

But the heart of Yeh Meri Family are the kids. Harshu, around whom the narrative revolves, is a mirror image of yourself. And he hits every note gloriously. Capturing a range of emotions from being curious, ecstatic, jealous, disappointed, sad and even in love, Harshu is Sameer Saxena’s Mason; and he invests you in his story almost like it’s yours. His brother Dabbu, sister Chitti and love interest Vidya too, play their parts to the T, making us a part of this family. But on the other side of the spectrum is Shanky, an adorable know-it-all who brings a new dimension to this ensemble. He is the confidant, the shrink, the smart alec, and an ever curious boy who believes he is too old for his age. He gets the best lines in the show, and he knocks it out of the park.

But as much as Boyhood was Linklater’s story to tell, Yeh Meri Family is Sameer Saxena’s masterpiece. His greatest success is in disappearing the camera, and making you another member of this family. Getting up close when required and standing outside the door when needed, Saxena glides through the house and family so effortlessly, that within a few episodes, you know where the doors are, at which turn is the room, the colour of each room. And the same goes for the characters. Yeh Meri Family is a triumph. A classic. This is our Boyhood. And it deserves to be celebrated.