Chunnan 'Mirza' Nawab is a stingy old man who is regarded by most people he knows as a greedy miser. His wife, Fatima Begum, who is 17 years older than him, is the owner of Fatima Mahal, a run-down mansion in Lucknow whose rooms are being leased out to various tenants, many of whom are not paying appropriate rent. Begum leaves Mirza with the responsibility of tending to the property, but Mirza cannot wait for Begum's death, so the mansion can be passed down to him. Baankey Rastogi is a poor tenant of the mansion who lives with his mother and three sisters. He owns a wheat mill shop, and consistently makes excuses and claims for why he can't pay his long-overdue rent despite being charged even less than all the other tenants, much to Mirza's chagrin. As a result, Mirza nags him to pay his dues whenever they cross paths. This leads to Baankey getting frequently irritated, and in an outburst of anger, he kicks the wall of a toilet block which collapses, angering Mirza, who demands Baankey pay the full cost of repair. Baankey, however, does not pay up, so Mirza attempts to make the lives of him and his family miserable, in every way possible. This is the last straw for Baankey, who vows to exact revenge on Mirza. He gets his opportunity when Gyanesh Shukla, an archaeologist working for the government, realizes the historic value of the property. He quickly makes plans to seize it, evict everyone living in it, and declare it a government-owned heritage site. Gyanesh explains his plans to Baankey, claiming that alternative accommodation will be provided for those evicted. Baankey realizes that Mirza will end up losing his grip on the mansion, so supports Gyanesh with his motives. Mirza soon finds out about the situation, and hires a local lawyer, Christopher Clark. Mirza plans to get the ownership of the mansion transferred to himself once Begum dies, so he can evict his tenants and keep the mansion for himself. After a lengthy attempt to track down anyone in Begum's family who could inherit the mansion instead of him, the last step is to get a copy of Begum's left-hand fingerprints. Mirza successfully acquires fingerprints from a sleeping Begum, but they are from the wrong hand. He resorts to forging the prints instead. Having noticed the mansion's state of disrepair, Christopher introduces Mirza to Munmun, a wealthy developer who is willing to buy the mansion, demolish it, and build a modern housing complex on the land. Christopher claims that Mirza will get a lump sum of money for this, so the latter very hastily agrees. Unfortunately, Gyanesh's offer of alternative housing for Baankey and the other tenants are false claims, and Gyanesh brings a couple of men to declare the mansion as a heritage site, and also says that all the tenants will have to vacate the house. Arguments and fights begin as Baankey and the tenants are furious that they won't get alternative housing, as promised to them. But then Christopher arrives with Munmun and the developers, and a suitcase full of money for Mirza and the tenants. Mirza sees the tenants taking some of the money, and sits on the suitcase, proclaiming all the money is his, leading to further furious arguments and fights. However, they are suddenly interrupted when a maid announces that Begum has gone. Mirza secretly rejoices at first, thinking Begum has passed away and the mansion is now his. However, Begum's letter reveals Begum is still alive, having eloped with her old lover Abdul Rehman and selling the mansion to him for a rupee to preserve it and foil Mizra's plans. Everyone moves out, depressed at having to leave the old mansion. This is worsened by them being shut out when Begum returns to the mansion to celebrate her 95th birthday. Begum left behind an antique chair for Mirza, and he remarks to Baankey that he sold it locally for 250 rupees. The film then closes showing the chair in a Mumbai antique shop, priced at 135,000 rupees.
In May 2019, in an interview Shoojit Sircar informed that Juhi Chaturvedi and he worked on the script. He also revealed Chaturvedi came up with a quirky story. He said, "As soon as I read the script, I shared it with Mr Bachchan and Ayushmann at the same time. I thought it would take some time to develop and take it forward, but everyone was so enthusiastic to work on this script, they figured out their dates and here we are..." He further informed that the title of the film is a colloquial term used in Lucknow Amitabh Bachchan and Ayushmann Khurrana were cast for the lead roles, making it their first film together. The filming began in the third week of June 2019 in Lucknow.
Marketing and release
The first look of Amitabh Bachchan from the film, a quirky teaser poster was presented on 21 June, 2019. The film was scheduled for release on 17 April, 2020. The release date of the film was initially announced for November 2019, but was then advanced to 28 April, 2020 and later preponed to February 28, 2020. The film's release date was again postponed to 17 April, 2020. The film was then scheduled to be released on 17 April 2020, and then was further postponed. On 22 May, 2020 the official trailer was launched by Amazon Prime Video. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the film was not released theatrically, but on Prime Video worldwide on 12 June 2020.
Soundtrack
The film's music was composed by with Shantanu Moitra, Abhishek Arora and Anuj Garg with lyrics written by Puneet Sharma, Dinesh Pant and Vinod Dubey.
Critical reception
of Film Companion said that, "The film takes its time setting up this world, which is both contained and timeless. The first hour moves at a measured pace. In this, Gulabo Sitabo is more like October than Piku. The humour is quieter," but also criticises it for its pacing, "These characters aren’t necessarily likeable so you might feel a little fatigued in their company. The narrative also meanders." The Times of India gave it a rating of 3.5 out of 5 saying, "While the movie does well on many fronts and one of the highlights being the premise itself, the build-up consumes a fair share of the film, making it a tad draggy at the start." It also praised the performances of all actors in the film. It praised Amitabh Bachchan's performance, thus: "He sinks into the character and every facet of it". Mike McCahill of The Guardian gave it slightly negative review, giving 2 out of 5. Unimpressed by the performances and narrative, he says, "Bachchan works hard at his swaddled meanie character, but make-up and props are doing most of the work, work that ultimately serves to distance actor from audience. A tired-seeming Khurrana, meanwhile, presents as blandly anonymous, reducing a final push for pathos to a limp shrug. Everyone appears at the mercy of shaky narrative foundations.".
