Gulabo Sitabo
Directed by : Shoojit Sircar

Aapka hamara nikaah hua tha, ki hum bhaage the aapke saath? 


Set in Lucknow, Mirza (Amitabh Bachchan), a 78 years old landlord is very obsessive about his old crumbling mansion known as 'Fatima Mahal' waiting to get the total ownership when his wife, Begum (Farrukh Jaffar) dies. Many tenants live there on rent that includes Baankey (Ayushmann Khurrana) along with his mother and three sisters. There's a constant banter going between Mirza and Baankey, which increases when Baankey accidentally breaks one of the washroom. A lawyer and archaeology gets involved very soon citing it to be a heritage property but having their own personal interests. 

The pace reminded of October, very slow but unlike that movie, I struggled to find a character to love. We see a guy on street doing puppet show based on 'Gulabo and Sitabo', they always fight and argue with each other and that's how the main characters Mirza and Baankey are. Even a reference scene is shown at one moment where Baankey's sister is watching 'Tom and Jerry' cartoon on TV. Mirza wants rent on time and planning to increase the rent, which is only 30rs per month right now (I am not sure what year Shoojit kept this film on) while Baankey is good at making excuses or lieing everytime he has to pay the rent The light-hearted moments between them keep coming, both been selfish in their own ways. It gets bit repetitive at times, that gold digging scene was un-necessary. When Brijendra Kala (lawyer) and Vijay Raaz (Archaeology) characters enter the narrative, it did give me feeling of maybe they are working together but the twist we get at the end was very unexpected. To be honest even though I liked the twist, it still feels not completely real. 

What I did enjoy was the dialogues, a thing about Shoojit films that was again so good due to Juhi Chaturvedi. Amitabh Bachchan is lovable, totally into his character, the way he walks bending over and those attacks he gets whenever someone would tell a big amount of money he may get either through rent or selling mansion was very funny. Srishti Shrivastava was very good as one of sister of Baankey. Ayushmann Khurrana was okay, again didn't appeal fully to me but atleast I didn't feel irritated by his character in here, and he gets some nice moments like the one where his girlfriend comes to buy 'Organic atta' right at end or when he asks Mirza to adopt him. The show stealer however was Farrukh Jaffar, that scene where she asks Mirza whether they got married or ran away and then asking who did she run away with then was hilarious. Its a pity she gets very less screen-time for the obvious reason you find out in the end. Liked that chair sequence in the end, how from 250rs it goes to a very high price.

An interesting take on the humans and their greed and desires whether they are young or old, a tighter screenplay would had helped though and also I ended up feeling for Mirza despite his greedy nature which I think makers weren't wanting so somewhere they failed in putting his character not look miserable. Still a likeable movie that has some fun moments, if you enjoy the slow pace and don't mind the twist then you would end up loving it, I didn't. Definately among my least enjoyed Shoojit movie.

My Rating : 5.5/10



Bulbbul
Directed by : Anvita Dutt

Thoda pagal hai.. par chup rehna. 


Spoilers ahead .. 


Its been 5 years as Satya (Avinash Tiwary) returns back to his village where only his elder sister-in-law, Bulbbul (Tripti Dimri) lives now. His brother Indranil (Rahul Bose) has abandoned her, and Indranil's twin brother, Mahendra died few years back with his wife Binodini (Paoli Dam) not living at the haveli either. There is a strong belief among the people living there that the deaths taking place in the village has something to do with chudail. Also, there's a doctor Sudip (Parambrata Chattopadhyay) who visits the haveli often to check up on Bulbbul.

The moment you see Bulbbul's grown up sequence where she is herself controlling the haveli, her conversation style is enough to reveal she is hiding some trauma. She is just going through the senses mostly with her own life but always eager to help others which is a key point for the plot. In one of the early scenes she clearly warns one of the guy to never hurt his 1st wife who just recently married another lady, and in the finale we do see the chudail kill him when he does hurt the 1st wife. We know for certain from start Bulbbul is the chudail, what we don't know if its literal or there's more to it which is told to us in phases through flashbacks.

The film never works on basis of thriller, and its not a horror either if you are looking for chudail scenes throughout, rather its how bad a horror life women goes through whether its the child marriage, patriarchy or domestic assault/violence/rape, with no freedom at all. Set in 1880's, pre independance era in the Bengal Presidency, a time when such things were a norm, even though some of it still prevails in our societies today.

There's one superb scene (some would had found it funny if the film released in theatre), where Binodini keeps telling Bulbbul 'chup rehna', her way of elaborating how women must always bow down to the men and its not bad as that way they get 'ijjat', and 'gehne'. Binodini and Bulbbul share many good scenes together, where both are in their own ways putting forward their opinions against each other. Its interesting to see such a relation when both have been suffering, but it was hard to emphasize with Binodini having seen how she acted as a catalyst leading to what Mahendra does. The assault scene was hard-hitting, and so was the act Mahendra does later.

I like how they use the horror freak mind of Bulbbul to advantage in taking the narrative towards feminist revenge. Oddly, at first watch I almost bought it that she was indeed chudail and its silly to show her get shot at end. But clearly, she was human always, with only thing to decipher, if she had got some powers that made her a Devi or it was a complete case of using fantasy to give justice to others. Love how they shot the night sequences involving the bullock-cart giving it a eerie feel. However the red color over-use got to me after a while!

Totally enjoyed Tripti Dimri performance, she played different aspects of the character so perfectly, be it the sarcastic or laughing tone she has on most of the time, the conversations with Badi bahu (or choti bahu as shown) Binodini,  the lovable attraction towards Satya, the feeling of she will lose him forever or the drastic change when she is hunting people who hurt women including her own revenge on the brothers. I couldn't really find a flaw in her acting, which I felt wasn't totally upto the mark in Laila Majnu. Rather its Avinash Tiwary, who stole the show in that film, felt very less appealing here mainly because his character never gets the detailing or more extra that it should had. He does chip in with a good performance still, but how I wish they had kept Mahendra's role out which was very un-necessary to the plot and added more to Satya-Bulbbul story. Rahul Bose was efficient in his both acts.

Parambrata Chattopadhyay is lovable yet again playing the 'good guy' role, all his scenes with Bulbbul are sweet and he's the only guy that doesn't turn grey. Love the conversation he has with Bulbbul on the balcony telling he knows his limits.





Kudos to Anushka Sharma who keeps bringing creative ideas in every new project, even though only NH10 and PaatalLok have been the best of them all. Bulbbul is very much on par with how Pari was for me, many problems including a weak final act, yet I can't dimiss it because there's a lot to like too. And I would love to see Tripti get more movies.

My Rating : 6/10