Genre : Drama
Year : 2020
Running time : 2 hours 4 minutes
Director : Shoojit Sircar
Cast : Amitabh Bachchan, Ayushmann Khurana, Vijay Raaz, Brijendra Kala, Srishti Srivastav, Farrukh Jaffer
Kid rating : PG
Gulabo Sitabo was highly anticipated given that we are stuck indoors, the movie theaters are closed, and there aren’t any new Hindi films releasing. So the release of this film on Prime was wonderful – or at least that’s what I thought until I’d seen it :). Not that I wish it were any different; I hope many more films start releasing on streaming platforms.
Anyway, Gulabo Sitabo is about 2 hours long and has Amitabh as old, doddering Mirza Chunnan Nawab, landlord of Fatima Mahal, a similarly old, decrepit haveli in Lucknow. There are 5 families renting rooms at the haveli, with Baanke (Ayushman Khurana) and his family paying the lowest rent – a measly Rs 30 per month. Mirza and Baankey are forever at odds with each other – the former wishes to increase rent or evict Baanke and his family, and the latter is just as adamant at not giving an inch. When one of their altercations involves a police complaint, other predators get a whiff of the matter. The haveli does stand on prime land.
Gulabo Sitabo is a quaint tale – almost like a slightly more complicated and contemporized Aesop’s fable. Even though the film mainly features Mirza and Baanke, the most interesting characters were the Begum (Mirza’s wife) played magnificently by Jaffer and the feisty Guddo (Baanke’s younger sister) beautifully portrayed by Shrivastava – we also saw her as Albina in Gully Boy. Amitabh, as Mirza, does well, although he in inconsistent. He has a large, bulbous prosthetic nose, wrinkled skin and a stooped walk. The stoop is sometimes more, sometimes less. Still, his character is the one I feel most sympathy for, alone and almost friendless. Ayushman is fantastic as always as paunchy, uneducated shop-keeper Baanke, trying to keep his household of mother and sisters happy.
The haveli is old and grimy but still looks gorgeous – the cinematography and the saturated hues are spectacular. The film does the milieu thing well – the characters, locales and language seems realistic. It is humorous in places, flat in others. It is also very, very slow-paced – its biggest downfall. Its got sympathetic characters but their plight and/or anguish is not portrayed well. We feel for them, but not that much. As a result the film is just about alright, and never rises above that. Gulabo Sitabo does have a great cast – Khurana, Vijay Raaz, Brijendra Kala and Srishti Srivastava and much of the credit for the film’s even middling rating goes to them.
Gulabo Sitabo is about average. Shoojit Sircar cannot make this film light up with the spark of say, a Piku.
Kidwise: Clean. Sexual situations are implied, not shown on-screen.
