It is a plain vanilla affair, it’s like having a very very diluted rooh afzah which has more water and just a dash of 'gulabi syrup'. It is not an outright comedy (maybe it can be categorized as a black comedy as every character in the movie is laced with "mean" motives).
The movie is all about age and aging of men and the mansion. Like the Old McDonald’s farm here we have a haveli, and like McDonald’s farm here too we have goats and tenants whose rentals paycheque is next to nothing. The caretaker is a septuagenarian senile Sheikh played perfectly by AB. Full marks to his makeup man in making him unrecognizable with a Pinocchio(ish) nose (Maybe it’s a great metaphor to show his malicious nature) and of the tenants there is a cocky character (Played by Anshuman) who is a kind of rebel who generally defaults on monthly rentals. There is one more endearing character of Begum, the real owner of Fatima mahal and wife of Mirza Sheikh who is in her ripe age of 94. The entire plot hovers around the cat n mouse banter taking place between tenants and caretaker Mirza.
Director Soojith Sircar after giving a masterpiece Piku has once again teamed up with AB and has teamed up with Anshuman once again after Vicky donor and also teamed up with writer Juhi Chaturvedi who written Vicky Donor, Piku for Soojith. The casting is top class with guys like Vijay Raaz, Bijendra Kala, it seems the plot is shot in the actual location, the choice of the haveli is simply awesome. The outdoor shots of Awadh’s capital Lucknow are simply breathtaking.
Looks like Juhi and Soojith have tried a Manmohan Desai here with a Hindu tenant, Muslim owner, and a Christian advocate, but somehow fails to recreate the magic of meaningless Amar Akbar Antony. The whole premise of the plot is wafer-thin as the dilapidated nature of mansion and to support it some unnecessary subplots like the involvement of the Archeological Department, the love affair of Anshuman, real estate sharks some sleazy affairs, digging for treasure in the mansion, are planted. Even the climax is overstretched and is seemingly redundant. However, the tongue-in-cheek dialogues are simply awesome, and outstanding performance by AB and a newcomer Srishti Shrivastava will make you sit through for 2 hours.
Thanks to Pandemic, the movie was released on the OTT platform else I am not sure of its box office success.
Comentarios