Gulmohar review: 'Home is where the heart is', prove Sharmila Tagore and Manoj Bajpayee with this beautiful film

4/5

The Batras are getting ready to relocate to a penthouse in the urbanised Gurgaon, also known as Gurugram, after spending 34 years living in Gulmohar in the centre of Delhi. To celebrate Holi one final time, the grandmother Kusum (Sharmila) asks her family to stay four more days in the now-sold family bungalow. A carefully hidden secret is revealed during the packing and moving out process, shaking this tree to its very core.

Fatherhood, domestic help, politics, patriarchy, sexuality, sexism, decisions, concessions, religion, real estate, motherhood, and marriage — According to Sukanya Verma, Gulmohar provides a complex, multi-layered knowledge of familial ties and their indirect effects on those living on the periphery.

The sale of famed director Mira Nair's Delhi home served as the inspiration for Rahul V. Chittella's most recent Disney+ Hotstar release, Gulmohar. According to her, a house serves as the residence for several generations of families, who leave behind their memories, secrets, and drama. In Gulmohar, which offers a great ensemble and an equally compelling plot line, it's not much different. The Batra family has resided in Delhi's Gulmohar for many centuries. The family gathers there for one last celebration before they decide to sell the home to a builder. The gathering Nair gave at her Vasant Vihar home served as the inspiration for this scene.

Fascinating family secrets emerge as the packing and loading of household starts. Throughout the coming days, Kusum (Sharmila Tagore), her son Arun (Manoj Bajpayee),Arun's wife Indu (Simran), and Aditya (Suraj Sharma), their son, deal with the repercussions of everything that has been said—and, more significantly, what is still to be said or disclosed!

In the middle, Indu discovers Arun's father's will, which discloses a dreadful secret. Since Arun was adopted rather than born, Gulmohar would first go to his brother Amol Palekar and then to his son. The father believes that family ties are what count most in the end. Arun is shocked and speechless when Indu finds the will and gives it to him. He then confronts his mother, Kusum and the story unfolds.

Watching Sharmila Tagore is delightful. She makes Kusum so endearing and profound without even the tiniest strain, as if she never took a break. Gulmohar's roots and fruits come from her ability to be firm, polite, traditional and liberal, all in the same breath.

Manoj Bajpayee makes a convincing case for the son who wants to wear his father's clothes, shoes, and iconography. Simran, his tenacious rock, keeps everything together with ease.

What great craftsmanship is all about is demonstrated by Amol Palekar as the angry, spiteful force threatening to ruin it at any costs. The ideology of hate would be satirised by any other actor, but Palekar internalises it and makes it twice as dangerous.

Suraj Sharma, on the other hand, has a warmth about him that makes him a dependable presence on film. Gulmohar gains from his humanity and the way he looks to his kind Kaveri Seth wife for assistance. The song by Utsavi Jha serves as an intriguing stimulus for Kusum's reminiscence, although it lacks some direction on its own. Talat Aziz, a ghazal singer, briefly appears on stage and entertains the Batras and us with his voice and vigour.

Rahul Chittella selects the most qualified people to carry out the tasks on his project. Everyone is aware of their responsibilities in creating a beautiful watch from this product. He never strays from his story as a filmmaker in order to tell anything more or less. Clearly, there is space for much deeper exploration of these intricate stories and catharsis, but that doesn't make this experience any less enjoyable.

After a long time, Gulmohar serves as a great piece of work, well scripted and superbly executed. Sharmila returns to the big screen for the first time in ten years, and as the mother divided between her intense love for Arun and her remorse at having participated in the will, she will be remembered for a very long time.

Gulmohar discusses families and what makes them. It will only move you.