Gulabo Sitabo

Gulabo Sitabo
Release poster
Directed by	Shoojit Sircar
Written by	Juhi Chaturvedi
Produced by	Ronnie Lahiri Sheel Kumar
Starring	Amitabh Bachchan Ayushmann Khurrana
Cinematography	Avik Mukhopadhyay
Edited by	Chandrashekhar Prajapati
Music by	Score: Shantanu Moitra Songs: Shantanu Moitra Abhishek Arora Anuj Garg
Production companies	Rising Sun Films Kino Works
Distributed by	Amazon Prime Video
Release date	12 June 2020 (2020-06-12)
Running time	124 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi

Gulabo Sitabo is a 2020 Indian Hindi-language comedy-drama film directed by Shoojit Sircar, produced by Ronnie Lahiri and Sheel Kumar, and written by Juhi Chaturvedi. Set in Lucknow, it stars Amitabh Bachchan and Ayushmann Khurrana as warring men. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the film was not released theatrically, but was released worldwide on Amazon Prime Video on 12 June 2020.

Plot

Chunnan 'Mirza' Nawab (Amitabh Bachchan) is a stingy old man who is regarded by most people he knows as a greedy miser. His wife, Fatima Begum (Farrukh Jafar), who is 15 years older than him, is the owner of Fatima Mahal, a run-down mansion in Lucknow whose rooms are being leased out to various tenants, many of whom are not paying appropriate rent. Begum leaves Mirza with the responsibility of tending to the property, but Mirza cannot wait for Begum's death, so the mansion can be passed down to him. Baankey Rastogi (Ayushmann Khurrana) is a poor tenant of the mansion with his mother and three little sisters. He works at a wheat mill shop, and though he is happy with most things in his life, including his relationships with his family, he is unable to raise enough money to pay his rent, that has been overdue for months. As a result, Mirza nags at him to pay his dues whenever they cross paths. This leads to Baankey getting frequently irritated, and in an outburst of anger, he kicks the wall of a toilet block which collapses, angering Mirza, who demands Baankey pay the full cost of repair. Baankey, however, is unable to pay up, so Mirza attempts to make the lives of him and his family miserable, in every way possible. This is the last straw for Baankey, who vows to exact revenge on Mirza. He gets his opportunity when Gyanesh Shukla (Vijay Raaz), an archaeologist working for the government, realizes the historic value of the property. He quickly makes plans to seize it, evict everyone living in it, and declare it a government-owned heritage site. Gyanesh explains his plans to Baankey, claiming that alternative accommodation will be provided for those evicted. Baankey realizes that Mirza will end up losing his grip on the mansion, so supports Gyanesh with his motives.

Mirza soon finds out about the situation, and hires a local lawyer, Christopher Clark (Brijendra Kala). Mirza plans to get the ownership of the mansion transferred to himself once Begum dies, so he can evict his tenants and keep the mansion for himself. After a lengthy attempt to track down anyone in Begum's family who could inherit the mansion instead of him, the last step is to get a copy of Begum's right-hand fingerprints. Mirza successfully acquires fingerprints from a sleeping Begum, but they are from the wrong hand. He resorts to forging the prints instead.

Having noticed the mansion's state of disrepair, Christopher introduces Mirza to Munmun, a wealthy developer who is willing to buy the mansion, demolish it, and build a modern housing complex on the land. Christopher claims that Mirza will get a lump sum of money for this, so the latter very hastily agrees.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Baankey and Mirza, Begum has found out about the respective plans both are making to profit from the mansion that her family has owned for generations. She will have none of it, and quickly makes her own plans to divorce Mirza and run away with another lover of hers, selling the mansion to the latter for a single rupee to safeguard it.

Unfortunately, Gyanesh's offer of alternative housing for Baankey, and the money that Christopher offers Mirza, are both false claims. When Gyanesh suddenly brings in other government officials to seize the property, and Christopher simultaneously brings the developers on to the site to prepare for demolition, these falsehoods turn out as a nasty surprise for the feuding pair. Arguments and fights erupt immediately.

However, they are suddenly interrupted when a maid announces that Begum has gone. Mirza secretly rejoices at first, thinking Begum has passed away and the mansion is now his. But Begum is still alive, and she has eloped as per her own secret plan, leaving a letter behind to explain how she has laid waste to the greedy plans of Mirza and Baankey. Both move out, and their lives become much more subdued and depressed. This is worsened by them being shut out when Begum returns to the mansion to celebrate her 95th birthday. Begum left behind an antique chair for Mirza, and he remarks to Baankey that he sold it locally for 250 rupees. The film then closes showing the chair in an antique shop, priced at 135,000 rupees. Mirza was so ignorant and petty that he did not realize that the value of that single chair would have been enough to solve all his troubles.

Cast

• Amitabh Bachchan as Chunnan "Mirza" Nawab
• Ayushmann Khurrana as Baankey Rastogi
• Vijay Raaz as Gyanesh Shukla, Government Officer
• Brijendra Kala as Christopher Clark, Lawyer
• Farrukh Jafar as Fatima Begum
• Srishti Shrivastava as Guddo
• Nalneesh Neel as Sheikhu
• Tina Bhatia as Dulahin
• Mohammad Naushad as Puppeteer
• Archana Shukla as Susheela
• Ananya Dwivedi as Neetu
• Ujali Raj as Payal
• Sunil Kumar Verma as Mishra ji
• Azad Mishra as Sayyad
• Uday Veer Singh Yadav as Munna Saxena
• Poornima Sharma as Fauzia
• Shi Prakash Bajpai as Pandey ji
• Poonam Mishra as Mishrain
• Jogi Mallang as Munmun ji
• Trilochan Kalra as Sinha
• Behram Rana as Abdul Rehman
• Zia Ahmed Khan as Doctor

Production

In May 2019, in an interview Shoojit Sircar informed that Juhi Chaturvedi and he worked on the script. He also revealed Chaturvedi came up with a quirky story. He said, "As soon as I read the script, I shared it with Mr Bachchan and Ayushmann at the same time. I thought it would take some time to develop and take it forward, but everyone was so enthusiastic to work on this script, they figured out their dates and here we are..." He further informed that the title of the film is a colloquial term used in Lucknow

Amitabh Bachchan and Ayushmann Khurrana were cast for the lead roles, making it their first film together. The filming began in the third week of June 2019 in Lucknow.

Marketing and release

The first look of Amitabh Bachchan from the film, a quirky teaser poster was presented on 21 June, 2019. The film was scheduled for release on 17 April, 2020.

The release date of the film was initially announced for November 2019, but was then advanced to 28 April, 2020 and later preponed to February 28, 2020. The film's release date was again postponed to 17 April, 2020. The film was then scheduled to be released on 17 April 2020, and then was further postponed.

On 22 May, 2020 the official trailer was launched by Amazon Prime Video.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the film was not released theatrically, but was released worldwide on Amazon Prime Video on 12 June 2020.

Gulabo sitabo movie can be seen and downloaded on many other platforms except amazon prime video and surprisingly, the movie has been seen in full HD on many other sites since the day the movie was released!

Soundtrack

Gulabo Sitabo
Soundtrack album by Shantanu Moitra, Abhishek Arora and Anuj Garg
Released	27 May 2020
Recorded	2019
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	30:44
Language	Hindi
Label	Zee Music Company
External audio Official Audio Jukebox on YouTube

The film's music was composed by with Shantanu Moitra, Abhishek Arora and Anuj Garg with lyrics written by Puneet Sharma, Dinesh Pant and Vinod Dubey.

Track listing

No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Madari Ka Bandar"	Dinesh Pant	Anuj Garg	Tochi Raina, Anuj Garg	4:10
2.	"Jootam Phenk"	Puneet Sharma	Abhishek Arora	Piyush Mishra	2:07
3.	"Kanjoos"	Puneet Sharma	Shantanu Moitra	Mika Singh	2:50
4.	"Kya Leke Aayo Jagme"	Vinod Dubey	Shantanu Moitra	Vinod Dubey	3:01
5.	"Do Din Ka Ye Mela - Reprise"	Dinesh Pant	Anuj Garg	Tochi Raina	3:33
6.	"Budhau - Reprise"	Dinesh Pant	Anuj Garg	Bhanwari Devi	3:15
7.	"Do Din Ka Ye Mela"	Dinesh Pant	Anuj Garg	Rahul Ram	3:33
8.	"Budhau"	Dinesh Pant	Anuj Garg	Bobby Cash	3:38
9.	"Gulabo Sitabo Theme"	-	Shantanu Moitra	-	3:41
10.	"Gulabo Sitabo Clarinet Theme"	-	Shantanu Moitra	-	0:56
Total length:					30:44

Critical reception

Anupama Chopra of Film Companion said that, "The film takes its time setting up this world, which is both contained and timeless. The first hour moves at a measured pace. In this, Gulabo Sitabo is more like October than Piku. The humour is quieter," but also criticises it for its pacing, "These characters aren’t necessarily likeable so you might feel a little fatigued in their company. The narrative also meanders." The Times of India gave it a rating of 3.5 out of 5 saying, "While the movie does well on many fronts and one of the highlights being the premise itself, the build-up consumes a fair share of the film, making it a tad draggy at the start." He also praised the performances of all actors in the film. Mike McCahill of The Guardian gave it slightly negative review, giving 2 out of 5. Unimpressed by the performances and narrative, he says, "Bachchan works hard at his swaddled meanie character, but make-up and props are doing most of the work, work that ultimately serves to distance actor from audience. A tired-seeming Khurrana, meanwhile, presents as blandly anonymous, reducing a final push for pathos to a limp shrug. Everyone appears at the mercy of shaky narrative foundations."

External links

• Gulabo Sitabo at IMDb
• Gulabo Sitabo on Bollywood Hungama