Waiting in queues outside theaters
vs waiting for midnight for a new movie
to arrive on your computer screens.
Welcome to the new normal.
Hey guys, my name is Sucharita,
this is Film Companion.
You're watching Not A Movie Review, and right now
I'm not going to be reviewing Gulabo Sitabo.
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More details, video ke end mein.
Now, Gulabo Sitabo is set in
modern day Lucknow,
and it is a story of a few people,
hopelessly in love with an old haveli,
which itself is threatening to collapse
on their heads any minute.
On one side is Mirza, played by an unrecognizable
Amitabh Bachchan, under pretty impressive prosthetics.
He is the old, slightly senile owner
of the aforementioned haveli,
aur uski jaan atki hai usmein.
On the other end hain haveli ke
aur bhi ancient kiraayedaar,
who refuse to evict,
joh pushton se reh rahe hain,
on rents like 30 rupees, 50 rupees.
Iss gutt ke neta hain Baankey,
played by Ayushmann Khurrana,
who is so busy always
being angry at his misfortunes,
poor Baankey has nearly forgotten, that
his heart is capable of other emotions as well.
Beech mein, there is the Archaeology department,
jisko haveli chaahiye to turn into a museum,
and a private builder who wants
to make a multi-storey building.
Lekhika Juhi Chaturvedi bohot hi bareeki se
observe karke apne kirdaaron ko banaati hain.
Yahaan bhi, Mirza ke ek insaan ke andar,
poora Lucknow jaise basaa hai.
Lucknow, jise bohot naaz hai
apne culture, apni tehzeeb par,
ussi tarah Mirza ko naaz hai haveli par.
Iss kirdaar ke through
aap imagine kar paate ho
ki apne heyday mein yeh haveli kaisi grand dikhti hogi,
jab Mirza had the means to actually take care of it.
Ya jab Mirza ki shaadi hui hogi yahaan,
tab kaisi raunak lagi hogi.
Par, the film also shows you ki Lucknow mein aisi kitni
hi haveliyaan padi hain jo khandar ho rahi hain.
Jinki koi izzat toh chhodo,
yaad bhi baaki nahi hai.
Director Shoojit Sircar really sees
and FEELS the curse of ageing,
and that too ageing alone and neglected.
Both, in people and places.
Amitabh Bachchan’s casting drives this home.
See, we know this actor as taller
and more visible than most,
and remember him in his most iconic roles as a strong,
angry young man, with the most buland, deep aawaz,
jisko copy kar karke voice over industry
kaeen saalon tak chali.
This same actor with rickety knees,
bent down at the waist,
his extraordinary vertical screen presence,
almost in a 1:1 ratio,
and that voice that we associate with him
COMPLETELY altered by the actor himself
- it's raspy and weak, is the metaphorical universe
of the film and its physical setting as well.
Lucknow, which is now
full of neglected derelicts,
used to be known as the land of
the rich and mighty, Nawaabo ka shehar.
Like the city, Mirza takes great pride
in his khandaani heritage,
but is also not above selling it for parts,
as long as he maintains ownership.
I’m certain, yahaan ek underlying Lucknow’s
colonial history subtext bhi hain.
Aur iss sheher ka object of desire, yeh haveli,
is personified in Mirza’s wife, Fatto Begum,
who was born here, spent her whole life
within its walls, and is the legal owner.
Played by Farrukh Jafar,
Fatto Begum is a scene stealer.
Ek toh, to see an actor her age,
she’s literally almost 90,
be given not just important scenes,
but an actual character arc,
and pivotal moments in the story,
is in itself cause for celebration.
Juhi Chaturvedi. *kudos*
But also, the acting performance is flawless.
Whether it is her telling her husband to
not show her his face for a few days,
or tricking him into doing exactly what she wants
him to do and then treating him with candy floss,
Fatto Begum IS the haveli, which is actually named
Fatima Mahal, which I’m assuming is after her.
She is cunning, smart,
and just like the haveli,
has more life in her bones
than Mirza gives her credit for.
Now, because the heart of this script is
the relationship between the city and this haveli,
maaney Mirza and Fatto,
Mirza’s enemy Baankey didn’t quite
interact with me in quite the same way.
Ayushmann Khurrana plays Baankey with a familiar
sense of pissiness, which we’ve seen him do, a lot.
The body language, mannerisms, self-assured
cockiness are all of a generic Delhi boy
we’ve come to associate with him.
It's not a bad acting performance.
The leg up provided to it by the screenplay
to be able to stand up to other, more
interesting characters around him in the film,
that seemed unnecessary.
Kaeen jagaho par, yeh film
thodi baffling bhi ho jaati hai.
There are some inexplicable, and frankly weirdly
out of place scenes and sequences.
One with Baankey’s younger sister,
Srishti Shrivastava as Guddo
and Vijay Raaz as Gyanesh Shukla,
the archaeology department officer,
is just...odd.
Another whole sequence about buried gold,
which abruptly starts and ends,
and ideally should have been part
of a larger montage.
Mirza’s lawyer, Christopher Clarke,
played by an always perfect Brijendra Kala,
is entertaining in and off himself,
but after a point, he’s joined by Guddo,
who is also doing mili bhagat with Shukla,
the proceedings get zara muddled, and
you begin to feel restless, I'm not gonna lie.
Things continue to get further disorganized,
when the vultures begin to close in.
The intentions of the archaeology department
are never fully clear,
which is mysterious for a while,
but it gets annoying really fast.
And a sequence in the climax with a birthday party
frankly left me scratching my head.
You're expected to see the tussle between Mirza
and Baankey come to a head and lead somewhere,
like the title of the film suggests.
Gulabo Sitabo are two puppets jinki
kahaani kathputli waala suna raha hai,
jo hamesha aapas mein ladte rehte hain.
Lekin, when instead the conflict and the resolution
change into something else entirely,
and frankly become more interesting,
but by then, a majority of your investment so far
hasn't come to a whole lot of fruition,
toh thoda cheating lagega.
Gulabo Sitabo is still a very deep,
multi layered film, with lots to say.
The bureaucracy of the archaeology department,
which itself operates in khandar like offices,
captured very effectively by
cinematographer Avik Mukhopadhyay.
The nostalgia of public libraries,
the failure of our system 
to protect tenants in any way,
basic lack of human rights,
greed, obsession, love, mansplaining,
the importance of education.
A LOT, A LOT, A LOT!
Lekin at its heart, it’s the story of lost youth,
past glory, nostalgia, stolen riches,
jo heartbreaking bhi hai
aur heartwarming bhi.
So, on a scale of 1 to 10,
Gulabo Sitabo is,
EK bohot insane kahaani
New York Times mein chhapi thi,
about a Nawabi family from Awadh,
jo Delhi mein khandar haveli mein rehte the.
And if you’d like to know how
reality can be stranger than fiction,
toh Google karna “The Jungle Prince Of Delhi”.
Ab, yeh MUBI MUBI kya hai?
MUBI is an awesome film streaming service,
which is like a constant, daily film festival,
with hand-picked, carefully selected films
curated for YOU
on their two channels,
MUBI INDIA and MUBI WORLD.
This week, y'all should
check out Moneyball.
The film which put Jonah Hill in the 'serious actor'
category and really deserves a second viewing.
Achcha chalo bye.
