Serious Men (2020)

The kid (Aakshath Das) shines in Serious Men, a social drama that reminded me of Malayalam comedy Salt Mango Tree (2015), and which is more about the stress that children feel at the hands of their ambitious and competitive guardians and less about class divide despite the montages that show otherwise. Here, the kid's father (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), hailing from a backward caste and having an antagonistic view of the world, uses the caste card and his child to aim for the stars, garnering applause and hollow fame on the way. But for what? Serious Men goes on to throw social commentary at you on…