Swati Pandey

Gulabo-Sitabo is a story that beautifully represents the consequences of one of the deadly sins - GREED. It tells how greed of worldly possessions can leave us all alone in the end. The story is set in Lucknow and revolves around about a century old Haveli- Fatima Mahal; its owner Fatima Begum (Farrukh Jaffar)- a witty old woman with an infectious smile; her husband and care-taker of the haveli Mirza (Amitabh Bachchan)- who married the lady because of his "be-intehaa mohabbat" for the Haveli; and the tenents living in the haveli. One of the tenents is Bankey Rustogi (Ayushmann Khurrana), a man constrained financially and burdened with the responsibility of taking care of his family- a mother and three sisters. Bankey, despite being continuously reminded by others of his financial situation and lack of education, is not ashamed of himself. Mirza is desperately waiting for his old wife to die so that he can be the owner of the Haveli and kick all the tenents out. The story, though a bit slow in the beginning, kickstarts when an officer of Archeological department, Gyanesh Shukla (Vijay Raaz) begins to take interest in Fatima Mahal and allures Bankey and all other tenents to help him in exchange of a better living space. On the other hand, Mirza takes help of a lawyer Christopher Clark(Brijendra Kala) in order to get legal possession of the Haveli. This social satire brings out various aspects of the society beautifully in different situations in a manner that it brings a smile on your face. As the lawyer and the officer take advantage of Mirza and Bankey respectively to get hold of the haveli for their personal gains, the story brings out how people try to manipulate and exploit others who belong to relatively lower social stature for personal benefits. With the help of dynamics of relationship between Bankey and his sister Guddo (Srishti Shrivastava), the story also depicts the insecurity of a male bread - earner when a woman of the house gets out and starts managing stuff in a better manner than him. Most importantly, the story teaches you that you are never too old to fulfill your desires. This beautiful story is enhanced by the commendable performance of all the actors.