You have to give credit to director Seema Pahwa - in showcasing the sprawling, messy, north Indian Joint family, she has assembled a cast of extremely recognizable character actors, in fleshing out roles, both big and small, and managing to touch on each characters' world, even for a little moment, should be acknowledged, even as the story overall is average at best.
An absolutely mesmerizing Supriya Pathak plays the matriarch of the family, the wife and sudden widow of the departed RamPrasad Shah (Naseeruddin Shah). As the movie opens after the death of the patriarch, the family members have just arrived, or are in the verge of arriving, and almost immediately we see the varying levels of conflict present among the family members, the good-natured ribbing slowly devolving into something acerbic, edgier, which helps this movie to stand out even as it threatens to dissolve itself due to the inherent theatricality of its screenplay.
That theatricality is perhaps prevalent because of its adaptation of a play, and try as she might, or perhaps its a creative choice, the theatricality, as well as the clunky exposition at parts, sometimes derails the movie, even as Supriya Pathak anchors it with a staid determination and vulnerability.
It is interesting the little nuances that you notice, the incessant questioning by any newcomer as to how the death happens, and the poor widow repeating the same story again, and the younger family members can't help but unkindly laugh, even as you realize that there is nothing they can do.
These are moments of kindness mixed with cruelty, sarcasm mixed with sweetness, a form of jealousy going side by side with a propensity to shirk from responsibility - the sons along with their respective wives are wondering who is going to take care of their mother, even as they are stuck in an endless cycle of monotony, taxes, debts and don't want to take that responsibility. It is telling that the youngest son and his wife come to the conclusion that they want to take responsibility entirely because he is not used to taking responsibility and this is the one chance to actually act as a responsible adult and not pretend to be one and fail to the top.
But where this movie shines is in showing us widowhood as a concept, one of the primary similarities it has with Umesh Bisht's Pagglait ( among the few that it has). But while Pagglait's protagonist was a widow who started to recognize her husband only after his death, Ramprasad ki Tehrvi's protagonist starts to recognize her family, the two-faced nature of them, only after the death of her husband. Recognition and acceptance is one of the key moments of both films, the difference is the amount of focus. While Pagglait is primarily focused on grief and moving on as the singular storyline, Ramprasad ki Tehrvi is more interested in critiquing and excavating the family unit as a whole.
One of the striking scenes of the movie is Supriya Pathak's character hiding behind a pillar in her own courtyard, and watching as her 3 sons come down from the terrace, drunk and tiptoeing to their rooms. a moment later, the younger generation come running from outside, laughing then shushing themselves and walking back to their places. The way Pahwa shoots this moment is exquisite, perfectly encapsulating the loneliness felt by the widow, even as she is surrounded by her family.
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