MOVIE REVIEW: Gulabo Sitabo

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Ayushmann Khurrana, Vijay Raaz, Bijendra Kala, Srishti Shrivastava Director: Shoojit Sircar My ratings: 3.5/5, IMDB & Rotten Tomatoes ratings not available

- Atishay Jain

Background: The world may have come to a temporary halt due to the pandemic outbreak but as they always say in Bollywood “The show must go on”, Gulabo Sitabo (or Gibo Sibo) is the first big multi-starrer Bollywood movie which on 12 June 2020 world-premiered on OTT platform Amazon Prime Video before getting a theatrical release.

After giving us numerous hits and critically acclaimed movies like Vicky Donor (2012), Piku (2015) and Pink (2016) and October (2018), director Shoojit Sircar is back in the ring with a complete entrainment capsule of a socially satirical Hindi drama with a pinch of little dark humour. The film derives its title from the two puppets that appeared at periodic intervals — Gulabo and Sitabo — who seem to be constantly fighting with each other out of their never-ending greed.

With a brilliant star cast of legendary superstar Amitabh Bachchan and the fresh yet amazingly talented Aayushman Khurana, the movie is very strong from the casting angle. Amitabhji and Ayushmann have always been Shoojit’s first choice when it comes to satire and comedy be it Vicky Donor or Piku.

Amitabh plays the role of a cranky, grumpy 78-year-old mirza Chunnan nawab who looks after a now dilapidated 100-year-old mansion, Fatima mahal (inherited by his wife Fatima begum or Fatto), since he got married. his love for the mansion and greed of its ownership is far more than anything else. His wife Fatto (played by Farrukh Jaffar), who is 17 years older, is in her golden 95, still healthy and not ready to die which Mirza wishes badly every day to get the legal ownership of the mansion!