Cast: Farrukh Jafar, Amitabh Bachchan, Ayushmann Khurrana, Vijay Raaz, Brijendra Kala, Shrishti Srivastava, Jogi Mallang
Director: Shoojit Sircar
Set in a quaint Lucknow haveli (mansion) called Fatima Mahal, Gulabo Sitabo is a writer’s film, crafted on lakhnawi style banter between landlord-tenant duo Mirza Nawab (Amitabh Bachhan) and Baankey Rastogi (Ayushman Khurana). Gulabo Sitabo is a comic satire on the greed that lives within families around ancestral property and the vicious web of systemic corruption that feeds on it.
Mirza, the landlord of Fatima Mahal, is a scoffing, proud landlord who is terrified of losing grip over the haveli in his frail old age. While the tenant Baankey, is a bitter young man, anxiously caught between discovering his youth and providing for his mother and three sisters. The real hero however is Begum Fatto (Farrukh Jafar), Mirza’s 17 years senior wife, with a sharp tongue and actual legal ownership over Fatimah Mahal.
Baankey is busy getting by each day while evading paying his Rs.30/ month rent to Mirza so he can keep the haveli’s roof over his family’s head; while Mirza is busy selling scraps and extracting money out of people as he awaits Begum’s death so he can get ownership of the haveli to finally make a living. Binding them both is a somber reality of their poverty, that they fearfully resist at the backdrop of combative greed for a better future.
Other players join in the battle for Fatima Mahal: Gyanesh Shukla (Vijay Raz), an officer from the archaeology department who feeds on Baankey’s greed, so that the government and powerful ministers can acquire the haveli; and on the other hand is lawyer Christopher (Brijendra Kala) who is simultaneous tricking Mirza on the legal battle of property ownership, while dealing the house to builder Mun Mun ji (Jogi Malang). So, who will finally win this property battle?
In surprising twist, while the greedy men are busy fighting the fight for the haveli, the old Begum decides the fate of the haveli from her Janana Khana (women’s room) and flees to her old lover. The gender reversal in the film is subtle but compelling, seen best in the powerful character of Baankey’s sister Guddu (Shrishti Srivastava), who steals the show throughout the film.
Gulabo Sitabo is a whimsical comedy about “haveli ke saath ashiqui” (love with the mansion), or the love for possessions. A futile chase that has been ongoing for years, confining generations in the grip of costly greed.