This is us: How the nuclear family changed the world

The term is now 100 years old; the format goes back millennia. It has shaped housing and phone plans, careers and ‘family packs’. Now, new formats are emerging.

Last year, The Great Indian Family, a movie touted as a celebration of the spirit of Indian joint families, was a bomb at the box office.

Released in September 2023, it garnered a rating of 5.6 on IMDb, despite a star lead in the form of Vicky Kaushal (who, incidentally, had two hits that year: the patriotically themed Sam Bahadur, and the romantic comedy Zara Hatke Zara Bachke).

There was a time when theatres across urban India would have filled