Amazon prime has had a mangalagaramaana beginning with direct movie launches. Be it “ponmagal vanthaal” or “Gulabo sitapo”, the theater owners would be glittering in glee that they’ve been spared the blushes in releasing these duds. If ponmagal vanthaal was a dud out and out with nothing going in its favor, Gulabo sitapo was killed by its own hype with its drool worthy combo of AB and Ayushman. Even 2 days after watching the movie, I am still clueless on the guise decided for AB. His character is 70+ and his wife is supposedly 15 years elder to him. But she looks younger on screen and AB is hardly recognizable in his getup. Full credit to the make up team if this was their intent. In the run time of roughly 2 hours plus, the search of story takes us through possibly the longest 130 minutes of recent times. Greedy landlord of AB scheming to usurp the dilapidated haveli, eagerly awaiting the death of his wife who is the actual heir, trying to get the generation old tenants, vacate the house is the crux of the story. Whether he got the house and did the tenants vacate the house is what is shown on screen. Even as a two liner, this sounds like a plot. But the execution on screen has been slow death. There are so many characters on screen that, in the intent of making each of them relevant, the story went for a toss I guess. In between this muddle, the leading ladies – be it the age old begum of AB, lady flame of Ayushman, lascivious sister of Ayushman, are quite cunning and shrewd on what they want. Probably had the storyline been developed over them, this could’ve been an awesome movie.
Gils verdict – a very moving story nevertheless. I started watching it on the TV in living room and within half hour I was so moved, away from the tv, that I couldn’t hear or see the dialogues. Intha paavatha pokrathukaga watched Abhimaan, the yesteryear classic of AB and JB. It is worth a post of its own. Coming soon.
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