Gulabo Sitabo review hit Amazon Prime Video on 12th June at 12 am, both Amitabh Bachchan and Ayushman Khurana can be seen at constant loggerheads with each other. The movie is based in Lucknow and gives us an insight into the lives of a landlord and his more than a handful of tenants.
Main characters of the film are Mirza, the landlord and Baankey, the tenant. Mirza is greedy and Baankey is frugal and they are insistent on making the other’s life tough.
The story is set in an unsteady and dilapidated Haveli Fatima Mahal, inherited by Mirza’s wife Begum from her great grandfather. The Haveli is of prime importance as all the events that take place in the film have a cause or effect link to it.
Mirza on many occasions is found selling valuable furniture to substandard light-bulbs for petty cash and Baankey is penny-pinching at every instance.
Personally, I found the trailer of the film to be quite misleading, I thought the movie would be a disclosure of a relationship between a landlord and the tenants but as the movie very slowly progressed, one could see that the only thing Mirza cared about was the Haveli, to a degree that he not only silently waited for Begum to die, he agreed to never having a child in order to have complete ownership of the Haveli. What I presumed to be a cat-mouse chase was actually the cat exploiting the mice and trying to push them out of the property.
The movie is indisputably slow and as it takes shape, we find a lawyer and an officer from Archeological Survey of India join the melange and add to the confusion, by the later half the movie starts to feel like Khosla ka Ghosla but in absence of the jest.
There is no doubt that Amitabh’s acting was flawless, even though I didn’t quite like his character as what was comical soon turned into pity. I enjoyed the light notes brought in by Ayushman Khurana, I adored his simplicity and devotion towards providing for his family and ensuring his three sisters got educated as he never got the chance.
Gulabo Sitabo review serves as a great reminder that in this world it’s every man for himself. The movie probes into corruption, red tapeism, and largely, greed.
If you can stand the first half of the film then you’ll be in for a ride, unfortunately, the more you think about the plot twist the more lacunas in the story you’ll find.