The very first scene of Gulabo Sitabo has Amitabh Bachchan stealing a few light bulbs and making a few pennies off it. Living off his Begum’s mansion, who is by the by, 17 years senior to him, every penny is essential to him, whichever way they come. Amitabh’s character Mirza, the ‘landlord’ is mostly at loggerheads with the inhabitants who pay a measly rent. He just doesn’t know as yet.
In particular, he has a bone or two to pick with Baankay (Ayushmann Khuranna) who lives with his elderly mother and three younger sisters. Nah, it ain’t like a Manmohan Desai feature. It’s not a catastrophe as in the sisters wail about not being married or some other thing, all the time. In actuality, they are ready with their comebacks. Monies from the mill he runs are negligible, no doubt. All things considered, he has a girlfriend too, but even the few moments spent come across as frustrated, cos of the perennial lack of money or him being a sourpuss. We wouldn’t know. As with a few unanswered questions every film has.
When Mirza knows that his manor is worth more than what the tenants are paying, he doesn’t lose any time in coming up with a plan to vacate them. Neither does Baankay to stay absolutely resolute in not vacating the premises. Is it greed? Nah! You can say both have an overwhelming attachment to the mansion. Moving along good or bad, peculiar would be the word to describe the occupants of this universe.
In between you also have a few vultures being thrown in, an official from the Archaeology Department and a lawyer. However, the main focus stays on the back and forth between the leads. What happens at the end? Do both wind up with their ends of the bargain?
The best part about the Shoojit Sircar directorial (Juhi Chaturvedi pens the story) is the wisecracks between Bachchan and Khurranna, each holding their own against the other (You have a lot of greed, complains Baankay to which Mirza retorts no one ever died of it). Other cast lends ample support (Vijay Raaz rocking as usual). All of them exhibit a natural chemistry and look as though they ‘belong’ to the mansion including the mute neighbour doubling up as tattletale and earning a few extra bucks by keeping vigil for a young couple to have their private moments.
Both Bachchan’s and Khurranna’s calibre is well known, therefore we wouldn’t go into their performances. Hell, even their physical transformation is on point (Khurranna scores a few brownie points with his paunch). Cinematography by Avik Mukhopadhyay with the natural colours is all things soothing. Music by Shantanu Moitra, Abhishek Arora and Anuj Garg suits the milieu of the film.
On the flip side, the movie travels at the pace it wants, perhaps it needs to travel at that pace to accomplish what it set out to do - nevertheless, might not work for a certain section of the audience. The humour too is subtle and draws on old-world charm and while it’s pleasing, doesn’t extract too many guffaws. It remains to be seen if the younger set of the audience would take to the movie.
All in all, Gulabo Sitabo does have its moments and might be an antidote to spend the quarantine moments even if it is far from flaws.