Mentalhood: The Kids Are (Almost) Alright But The Mom Brigade Got No Chill!

‘Kids should not be given unhealthy dishes like Chhole Bhature for lunch’ to ‘ Should we define gender roles for children?’ Mentalhood is a (almost hands-down) parenting guide for all the parents out there! The opening scene in the series itself shows how Meira (played by Karisma Kapoor) is juggling between her duties as a parent with her three kids, Amyra, Nikhil and Arjun. Adding to her struggle is her ambition to become a model in the mad city.

Mentalhood is a story of five mothers and one single dad, who are experimenting, with their parenting strategies and doing their best for their children. Meira (Karisma Kapoor), AJo( Sandhya Mridul), Preity (Tillotama Shome), Diksha (Shruti Seth), Namrata (Shilpa Shukla) and Aakash (Dino Morea) are proud parents and members of parent committee in Global International School. These 'half-time humans' and 'full-time parents' are leaving no stone unturned in doing what is best for their children.

The series covers every dilemma that a parent goes through the various stages of parenting cycle. Every mother in the show has her individual struggles, for example, Preity being an oppressed housewife or Namrata who is raising an adopted daughter.

Not only this but Mentalhood has also shown every possible lesson you can teach your children, be it raising your voice against being bullied, loving themselves or not letting gender roles being a dominant factor in their upbringing. The series also touches sensitive issues like molestation faced by children in school. 

Speaking about the plot of the show, Mentalhood can be hailed as a nearly perfect parenting guide for today’s generation. We cannot deny the fact that every coin has two sides so let us look at the other side of ‘Mentalhood’ coin. 

While watching the series, this one thought just popped up in my head, Do the parenting rules differ for middle class children? The entire series focuses on solely the elite class which I feel is not fair for the middle class parents. What is the solution when your child asks for something you cannot afford? Is it okay to send your kids to schools with no swimming pools but with only classrooms and boards? Mentalhood as a show fails to answer these questions. 

Speaking about the other loophole that needs to be addressed here is the unnecessary romantic twist between Dino Morea and Karisma Kapoor. That plot twist was uncalled for and has no space when it comes to a show that acts as a guide for the audience to become good parents. 

Coming to the characters of the show, Karisma Kapoor, Dino Morea and Shruti Seth have made a remarkable comeback. Karisma’s character Meira playing ‘mental mom’ blogger is an interesting twist. Shruti being a single mother who's struggling with her divorce is a delight to watch though it would have been better if the plot focused on Shruti’s story as well. Sandhya is fabulous as AJo and her character of a mother who bullies other mothers because she has received the same treatment from her own mother is interesting to watch. Tillotama and Shilpa have played their roles well. Sanjay Suri as Anmol Sharma tries hard to make the audience smile. We would have loved to see him more though.

Click the ‘Watch Now’ button if you are a Karisma Kapoor fan or looking for something new to add to your watch list.

Ratings:- 3.5/5