Director-writer team Shoojit Sircar and Juhi Chaturvedi say that their upcoming movie is about everyday people and how their struggles shape them
Aastha Atray Banan (MID-DAY; June 7, 2020)

While the rest of India counts the days to a full lifting of the Coronavirus lockdown, director Shoojit Sircar says he's quite at home, at home. Despite a career in Bollywood, he lives in Kolkata, and arrives in the city only when he has work. "The rest of the time, I am at home, not interacting much. I actually don't like doing movie promotions at all. I just want to release my movie, and let the audience watch," he says in a telephonic interview.

He has emerged from temporary hiding because his movie, Gulabo Sitabo, which was slated for an April release, is now seeing a digital release on Amazon Prime next week. He thinks it's not viable to "sit on a film" and with digital entertainment being the new frontier, he decided to take the plunge. His previous films include the critically acclaimed October (2018), Vicky Donor (2012), which changed actor Ayushmann Khurrana's fortunes, and Amitabh Bachchan and Deepika Padukone-starter Piku (2015) Gulabo Sitabo, also stars Bachchan and Khurrana as warring tenant and landlord, as Sircar teams up with his writing partner Juhi Chaturvedi. They have set the movie in Lucknow, the city Chaturvedi belongs to. The name comes from the puppet characters Gulabo Sitabo, the ever-fighting sisters. The movie, they say, is about simple people, who are shaped by their circumstances. "It could be moral or financial limitations, and how that leads to specific behaviour. We are not judging them, we are just pointing the camera on their lives," says Chaturvedi, known for crafting realistic characters and poignant slice-of-life stories. Sircar adds, "It's about the struggle called life, but with a grin at the end."

Other than the protagonists, Lucknow is also an important character in the movie. "Everything about old Lucknow is stuck in time. It has nothing to do with the new Lucknow. Time stands still here. It reflects Juhi's personal memories — Hazratganj, and the river Gomti. When she told me about puppetry, which is a dying art form, I knew I had to name the movie around the characters, to pay an ode," says Sircar.

When Chaturvedi speaks of the city, her childlike enthusiasm shines through. It's almost like she is telling us about an old friend. "I was very clear that the film had to be set in Lucknow because I had the confidence of getting the flavour right and giving the cultural and historical connections an authentic voice. A city lends its people a mindset, and that comes through in the movie," she explains.

For Sircar, it also reflects a big influence on his filmmaking—the fact that he grew up in an environment that wasn't burdened by distinctions surrounding class and religion. "I was a sportsperson and we used to play with kids from all strata—there were sons of teachers, doctors, an Indian Air Force officer, a rickshaw wala and rag picker. We never saw disparity. That disparity is missing in this movie too. Religion has no impact on the characters. They are just people to me, and will be to you," says Sircar.

The film then seems like just the distraction the audience needs at a time when the health crisis seems far from over. Chaturvedi, to her credit, has a positive attitude. "We have lived extremely mindlessly for a long time, and not given anything back to the world. But I think this has helped us evolve as human beings. We are now valuing everything, and everyone. Many may go back to the way they were, and some may not. And that's okay. It will keep the balance going."