4 min readUpdated: Nov 29, 2025 03:25 PM IST
Perfect Family review: The Karkarias of Delhi are a family who, like all of us, are desperate to project that everything is perfect. Somanth Karkaria (Manoj Pahwa) owns a mithaai-ki-dukaan which is struggling to stay afloat in a time when people are cutting on sugar, and veering towards videshi sweets. A paterfamilias in the old mould, he carries a comfortable paunch, and a sneering attitude of daddy-knows-best whether it comes to his own wife Kamla (Seema Pahwa), son Vishnu (Gulshan Devaiah), daughter Pooja (Kaveri Seth), daughter-in-law Neeti (Girija Oak Godbole) and their two grandchildren, Daani and Daksh.
When Daani (Hirva Trivedi) is hauled up for acting out in school, and the threat of expulsion from an expensive institution, the Karkarias find themselves arrayed in front of a psychiatrist (Neha Dhupia), who becomes their gateway into understanding who they really are, or at least begin their journey on that path, which can be very hard indeed.
‘Yeh saari cheezein bahut gehri jagah se aati hain’, says the psychiatrist, and the family reacts in the only way they know how: in shock and reluctance and resentment. They are very clear that they are there– captive to a “mental doctor:– only under duress: the moment they get an all-clear and Daani is back in school, they will vanish, putting all this therapy-sherapy nonsense behind them.
Created by Palak Bhambri, directed by Sachin Pathak and produced by Pankaj Tripathi, Perfect Family, an eight-episode series with episodes running 45–50 minutes each, is an impactful introduction to the importance of therapy, keeping clear of the teaching-and-preaching which could alienate us.
What makes it so beautifully relatable is the creation of the characters who feel like us: a father who insists on his way or the highway; a mother who has never really done anything for herself, her entire day revolving around the family; an adult son who is miserable, taking refuge in chanting whenever troubles besiege him, which is almost always; an adult daughter-of-the-house who has been forced into marrying a nice man who doesn’t match her temperament; a daughter-in-law who feels suffocated because she has never been made to feel at home; and a grand-daughter who is learning that stuffing her face with chocolate makes the misery of being bullied recede.
There’s a lot that Perfect Family and its able therapist has on its plate, and sometimes things get both too crowded or sag a bit, but that’s like life itself. The actors are all very good, Manoj and Seema bringing their real-life energies into enacting their screen couple, who begin learning that they are not only meant to be dutiful, but can also go have an ice-cream at India Gate, just as a lark. Vishnu learns that he can stand up for himself at a workplace which doesn’t value him. Neeti bursts out with her own insecurities, which are traced back to her own childhood, as are some other characters who get their own backstory: both Devaiah and Godbole as the couple who fell in love in their carefree college days and now battle with zero connection are excellent.
Owning up to our innermost feelings is the toughest thing for us, because that makes us vulnerable. If a series helps prise open those closed, nailed-shut, curdled emotions, or at least make us acknowledge that we all need help while normalising the importance of therapeutic intervention when required, Perfect Family would have done its job. What I also liked was that not all ‘problems’ are neatly solved; some are left hanging, because constant work is involved in healing ourselves, and we have to be committed to our own well-being to be able to lift that weight.
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It is available on YouTube, and the first two episodes are free to watch; the rest will be unlocked on a pay-per-view basis, just the way Aamir Khan has made available his Sitaare Zameen Par.
Perfect Family cast: Manoj Pahwa, Seema Pahwa, Gulshan Devaiah, Girija Oak Godbole, Neha Dhupia, Kaveri Seth, Hirva Trivedi
Perfect Family director: Sachin Pathak
Perfect Family rating: Three and a half stars
