Amitabh Bachchan and Ayushmann Khurrana star in Shoojit Sircar\u2019s puzzling tale of class and property management <\/p>\n
The first big Indian release of 2020 to divert towards streaming is an offbeam, strangely mismanaged parable about property management that renders its stars all but unrecognisable. The established Amitabh Bachchan is buried beneath old-age latex and thick-lensed glasses; emergent pin-up Ayushmann Khurrana is weighed down by a (presumably prosthetic) middle-aged spread. However director Shoojit Sircar\u2019s gaze keeps drifting beyond them, to a location you couldn\u2019t make-under: a mildewing Lucknow mansion house, lorded over by Bachchan\u2019s shuffling miser Mirza, ever looking for ways to kick Khurrana\u2019s collected waifs-and-strays to the kerb. The curious, altogether tentative drama that ensues may be as close as any film-maker has come to signing off on a Hindi redo of TV\u2019s Rising Damp.<\/p>\n
Alas, it\u2019s also one of those cases where forced idiosyncrasy tries the patience from an early stage. With 2015\u2019s sharp, breezy Piku and 2018\u2019s delicate but involving October, Sircar had nudged Indian commercial cinema in a rewarding, naturalistic direction; but this just feels like a strain. A laboured first half scopes out the characters\u2019 dingy surrounds without threatening to go anywhere, and feet are apparently being dragged because Sircar and generally reliable screenwriter Juhi Chaturvedi aren\u2019t themselves sure which direction to move in. Brakes are soon applied to the mounting narrative of landlord-tenant class war \u2013 \u201cParasite!\u201d, yells Mirza, reminding us of a more decisive film on a similar subject \u2013 in favour of a softer landing as both antagonists fall prey to creeping gentrification.<\/p>\n