Gulabo Sitabo: All About Performers, Not Actors

When I first watched the teaser for Gulabo Sitabo, the recently released film on Amazon Prime, I developed a certain reservation about it—though I couldn’t quite explain why.

Maybe it was Amitabh Bachchan‘s over-the-top prosthetic make-up or a touch of repetition in Ayushman Khurrana’s performance, but I somehow did not have a positive vibe.

When I was asked if I would watch the movie on Amazon Prime on June 12, I seriously had no excitement, which is unlike for a Shoojit Sircar movie.

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Gulabo Sitabo derives its theme from a popular roadside puppetry show of the same name, whose origin can be traced back to the early 17th century, in erstwhile Allahabad.

Gulabo and Sitabo are traditional glove-puppet theatre pieces from Uttar Pradesh, in which Sitabo is the worn-out, overworked spouse and Gulabo is the scintillating mistress of the same man.

They both desire the same thing; in their quest to achieve it, they often find themselves in conflict situations. In the end, however, both are left empty-handed.

With Amitabh Bachchan as Gulabo and Ayushman Khurrana as Sitabo, this Shoojit Sircar directorial ends up as a confused tale of sorts.

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The stars of the movie, in my view, are Vijay Raaz and Brijendra Kala, and they are brilliant in every frame.

They get into their characters with ease and bring out the best in them, which, however, was lacking in Amitabh Bachchan and Ayushman Khurrana’s performances.

Raaz and Kala show us that one needs to perform a character and not act it out.

Gulabo Sitabo is very long, and a few scenes and dialogues could have been edited.

The poor suffers, the rich enjoy and the middle-men always manage to extract honey from both the rich and the poor.

This, in short, is everything about Gulabo Sitabo and the message has been indeed well expressed, but only after several failed attempts.

Bachchan stealing a bulb in the first scene and telling Ayushman Khurrana of selling an antique chair for Rs 250, which was later shown to be priced at $1800, are two scenes that define the movie in a nutshell.

For Amitabh Bachchan and Ayushmann Khurrana fans, sadly, Gulabo Sitabo has little to offer.

The movie is all about the supporting cast, who turn out to be the best performers instead of the two prominent lead actors.