Gulabo Sitabo 2020

Chunnan “Mirza” Nawab is a stingy old ghar jamai who people around him regard as a greedy miser. His wife, Fatima Begum, who is 17 years his senior, owns Fatima Mahal, a worn-down mansion in Lucknow where many rooms sit leased to tenants who often fall behind on rent. Begum entrusts Mirza with managing the property, but his scheming heart longs for Begum’s death so the mansion can pass into his hands. The setup paints Mirza as a calculating patron of habit, always watching for the moment when control over the house might shift his way.

Baankey Rastogi is introduced as a hard-up tenant living with his mother and three sisters. He runs a small wheat-mill shop and, despite being charged even less than other tenants, he habitually dodges paying his overdue rent. Mirza’s endless nagging about rents clutters the air between them, setting a running tension that underscores the fragile balance of power in Fatima Mahal. Baankey’s evasions irritate Mirza, and their back-and-forth exchanges become a recurring source of friction, with Mirza pressing for full payment while Baankey finds a multitude of excuses to delay.

The situation escalates when Gyanesh Shukla, an archaeologist working for the government, recognizes the historical value of the property. He quickly hatches a plan to seize the mansion, evict every tenant, and declare the site a government heritage property. He promises alternative housing to those displaced, a promise that Baankey initially believes, seeing a chance to secure his family’s future. Baankey’s support for Gyanesh pivots on the idea that Mirza’s grip over the mansion could finally loosen, and the old man’s long-held scheming may meet its match.

Seeking to tilt the odds in his favor, Mirza hires a local lawyer, Christopher Clarke. Clarke becomes a pivotal ally as Mirza schemes to transfer ownership to himself after Begum’s passing so he can evict the tenants and keep the mansion for his own wealth. A painstaking search for Begum’s legitimate heir ensues, but Mirza’s desperation grows when a supposed path to ownership appears blocked by stubborn heirs and legal pitfalls. Clarke then introduces the idea of forging fingerprints to secure control, a moment that marks the depth to which the duo will sink to keep the property in Mirza’s hands.

The plot thickens when Clarke brings in Munmun Singh, a wealthy builder-developer with the power to buy the mansion, demolish it, and erect a modern housing complex on the land. Munmun’s involvement signals a larger, money-driven incentive that tempts Mirza with a lump sum for himself and for the tenants who might be willing to relocate for the right price. The developers’ arrival compounds the tension as the residents brace for upheaval, while Baankey and his neighbors weigh the fate of their homes against new possibilities.

As the scheme unfolds, Gyanesh’s promise of alternative housing proves hollow. The government plan is conditioned with coercive threats, and a couple of men arrive to declare Fatima Mahal a heritage site, pressuring everyone to vacate. In the midst of the chaos, a suitcases full of cash appears—an attempt to secure a quick payout. Mirza seizes the moment, seating himself on the money and declaring that all of it is his, an act that spurs fresh uproar among the tenants.

The drama takes an unexpected turn when Begum unexpectedly disappears. Baankey rushes to her room and finds not a corpse but a revealing letter written by Begum herself to Mirza. The letter exposes that Begum is alive, having eloped with her old lover Abdul Rehman, and has decided to sell the mansion to him for a token rupee to preserve it. This revelation promptly derails Mirza’s plans and changes the entire trajectory of Fatima Mahal’s fate. The community exhales in a collective sigh of relief and disappointment, knowing the mansion will not fall into Mirza’s greedy hands.

With Begum alive and the estate freed from Mirza’s grasp, everyone begins to move out, including Baankey and Mirza, as Fatima Mahal becomes an archaeological heritage site. The ending widens the lens from a single property dispute to a meditation on value and memory: Begum returns for her 95th birthday, accompanied by her lover, and leaves behind an antique chair for Mirza. He notes, with a mix of irony and astonishment, that he once sold the chair locally for a mere ₹250, a stark reminder of how quickly fortunes can shift. The final image lingers on Begum’s antique chair resting in an antique shop in Mumbai, priced at ₹1,35,000, a tangible symbol of all that has changed and all that has endured around Fatima Mahal.