GULABO-SITABO: After months of feeding on old repeats on TV or binge-watching a few web-series ranging from the good, bad or ugly to mediocre, I was looking forward to an authentic experience of a new release from Bollywood. I Waited almost with bated breath for Shujit Sarkar’s “GULABO SITABO”, which premiered Friday on AmazonPrime.

it is a story woven around a very dilapidated old Haveli in the heart of modern day Lucknow, whose owners are also equally deprived and decrepit. Mirza ( Amitabh Bacchan), the 78 year old co-owner of the haveli, hunched over and looking at least 10 years older, hobbles around on arched legs, wearing tattered kurta-pyjamas and a head scarf, trying to maintain his balance and often failing to do so, but somehow managing his 5 tenants and periodically stripping the haveli of its artefacts to make ends meet. His Begum is 15/17 years his senior, living in her own world of isolation, who cant remember whether she eloped with him or with a former lover/husband, and everyone is simply waiting for her demise so that the Haveli could pass on to Mirza to do as he pleases.

One of the tenants is Bankey Rastogi played by Ayushmann Khurana, who runs an Atta Chakki and looks after his 3 sassy sisters and widowed mother. Tenants for 70 years, his family finds all kinds of excuses not to pay the rent and the equally wily Mirza finds his own ways to extract whatever he can from the family, including thieving and selling away their light-bulbs. In fact Mirza’s frustration in being unable to either evict the squatters or get them to raise the rent manifests itself in some interesting moments in the film.

Enter Archaeology Research Centre’s Gyanesh Shukla (Vijay Raaz) who thinks the 100 year old Haveli has the makings of an archeological site and should be sealed. At the same time, builders’ mafia in collusion with a lawyer Christopher Clark ( Brijendra Kala) plans to grab the property and convert it into a heritage resort. What follows is a low-key battle of wits between Mirza, Rastogi, Shukla and Clark with a feisty Guddo, the oldest of Bankey’s 3 sisters, with some interesting forays into Nawabi establishments.

Amitabh Bachhan as always fits the role to a T, and turns out a sterling performance, and so does Ayushmann, but alas  its all in vain. What could have been a witty situational comedy, wobbles around and peters out. it never picks up the pace and the plot never seems to come cogently together. A comedy needs pace, events unfolding quickly but this one suffers from inertia, is laid back and largely uneventful. However, the movie authentically captures the ordinariness of poverty-stricken people, holed up in squalor, trying to bargain with life itself for a better deal. It has great characterisation too. Amitabh Bachhan as Mirza is unapologetically selfish, petty, greedy and unscrupulous but he is real! As is his love for the haveli! Ayushmann as Bankey is a typical loser but a fighter! He can think on his feet and connive & manipulate, but of course loses the game constantly. Despite all the great depth of character and competent portrayal, the movie falters primarily because of the poor screen play.; the problem in the story-telling, thinly woven and dispersed, never allows the fullness of the movie to emerge. 

Sad, but this one didn’t work for me. Still I would recommend you watch it for the love of Amitabh Bachhan and Ayushmann and the clever but subtle message of communal harmony.