A father with a measured smile, a child who has lost some of his front teeth but not his grin, and a mother who twinkles at the camera, lip-syncing to a song in the background. In a festival season marked by strife, this family has emerged as an unlikely face of simple happiness.
Chartered accountant Abhishek Mukherjee, his wife Priyanka, a teacher, and their son were riding a rickshaw through an illuminated city on Saptami Saturday (October 17) when a fleeting family moment struck a chord far beyond Calcutta.
The video captured a slice of life, perhaps a little joy many had left behind. India lapped it up, sharing it with friends and family, while the Mukherjees were left frazzled.
Abhishek posted the video on Instagram and thought little of it. Two days later, alerted by a message, he checked and found it had clocked 3.2 million views.
“Areh baba!” was his first reaction.
Taken aback by the sudden attention on his family's quiet world on the outskirts of Calcutta, he took the video down.
“I did not post it for what it turned out to be. So I decided to take it down,” he said, reluctant to discuss their newfound celebrity.
But the internet had other plans. Downloaded copies continued to circulate, with people reposting and sharing the video. Millions began reading into the family's expressions, chemistry and relationships.
The Mukherjees told Metro they were “overwhelmed and not too comfortable” with the attention.
They had opted for a rickshaw ride to see neighbourhood pandals because taking the car out on a crowded Saptami seemed impractical.
“The decision to shoot the video was momentary. Something that anyone — you, I or someone else — would do during Puja when going out with family. We captured that moment on camera, nothing else,” said Abhishek, who works with power utility CESC.
Perhaps, he added, people related to the video because its subjects were not heroes or extraordinary people, just everyday folks.
The backstory
Abhishek had been singing and nudging his wife to join in when he filmed the clip.
“He was asking me to sing, but I was reluctant because I didn't remember the words,” Priyanka said. Neither had given the video much thought, she added, and posting it had not even been part of the plan. It simply happened.
Abhishek is himself a passionate singer. For their son, more accustomed to travelling by car, the rickshaw ride was a surprise.
A millennial, who prefers to keep his life private, Abhishek believes the video resonated because it reminded people of a more familiar kind of family outing.
“As children, we would go pandal-hopping like this. Somewhere along the way, people lost that connection, perhaps because they no longer live with their parents or couples work in different cities,” he said. The video, he felt, spoke to family bonds that many missed.
The flip side
Not everyone was charmed. Alongside the appreciation came criticism, with some questioning why an ordinary moment deserved to be shared at all.
The Mukherjees, however, had never set out to make a viral reel.
“We are no S.S. Rajamouli to make something out of the world,” Abhishek said. There had been no elaborate planning or attempt to manufacture a moment for public attention.
They intend to carry on as before, making videos that reflect everyday life. “If it gets appreciated, good; if not, fine,” he said.