The film ‘Gulabo Sitabo’ – 2020

It is a Juhi Chaturvedi film, as much as it is a film of the usual suspects, Shoojit Sircar, Amitabh Bachchan & Ayushmann Khurrana. The pair of writer and director that gave us Piku.

As in Piku, you do not see Bachchan, you see only Mirza, who immediately reminds me of Shylock (Merchant of Venice) or Fagin (Oliver Twist).

The haveli, Fatima Mahal, is also a character in the movie, much like the way Mumbai is in ‘Shor in the City’ or Kolkata in ‘Kahani’.

The writing is beautiful, the play of words is superb, one wishes one could insult ones boss, like the way the characters in this film insult each other.

To me the most hilarious scene was when Baankey asks Mirza to adopt him.

In the end, it is a story to two people who are simply incapable of valuing what they have. Neither people nor things.

It is the women in the film, who open their eyes and see the world the way it is and take ownership of their lives. First, years after she has made a terrible error of judgement, Second, before she makes such an error and the Third, takes care of herself by finding a livelihood by hook or crook.