The presentation will be with you in 12 hours, academic Bani Ahmed (Kritika Kamra) promises a professor at an American university. Then the doorbell rings, and it simply doesn’t stop.
Various family members and friends drop in one after another, as though in a zombie attack wave. Bani’s sister Iram (Shreya Dhanwanthary) has a bag full of cash. Bani’s mother Asiya (Dolly Ahluwalia) and her sister Akko (Farida Jalal) are off on a pilgrimage.
Bani’s professor friend Amitav (Purab Kohli) and his very young protege Latika (Joyeeta Dutta) land up to join the furniture. Bani’s cousin Zoheb (Nishank Verma) and his girlfriend Pallavi (Anushka Banerjee) arrive to consult Bani on their upcoming wedding.
Bani’s eldest sister Humaira (Juhi Babbar Soni) shows up because this is clearly a party that is too good to miss. How can Zoheb’s mother Saafiya (Sheeba Chaddha) be left behind? Why talk of Nabeela (Natasha Rastogi) and not have her there too?
There is a method to the revolving door madness in Peepli Live director Anusha Rizvi’s new movie The Great Shamsuddin Family. By gathering a sprawling cast of women in a single location and forcing them into a series of contrived situations, Rizvi creates a humour-laden perfect storm.
The made-for TV film is out on JioHotstar. The Great Shamsuddin Family examines the timeless challenges faced by contemporary Muslim women, the annoying but also endearing ties that keep clans together, and the obstacles to inter-faith relationships.
Resonant Hindu-Urdu dialogue, which sounds especially sharp coming from Farida Jalal, and a bunch of fabulous actresses keep the overstuffed and tonally inconsistent film from descending into chaos.
The 97-minute movie is set in a Delhi milieu that is rarely explored. Observant but also liberal Muslims intersect with deracinated academics in mostly hilarious and at times uncomfortable ways.
The track about the creepy Amitav and the ditzy Latika, which includes a bizarre statement against liberal values by Bani, sticks out at all times. The movie would have worked simply fine without this clunky attempt to reveal Bani’s world to her family.
Amitav and Latika steal scenes away from the two generations of sisters who are alike while claiming to be different from one another. There’s a palpable feeling of bonhomie among the women, the sense that they have lived through many celebrations and crises.
Rizvi’s direction is sharpest in her handling of the actors, who always have a grip on the characters even when the film wanders off. Kritika Kamra, Shreya Dhanwanthary, Juhi Babbar Soni and Sheeba Chaddha sound and behave like squabbling relatives.
Farida Jalal is especially lovely as a tougher version of her character from Shyam Benegal’s Mammo. Akko is never to be trifled with, which is apparent the second she lays claim to the constantly ringing doorbell.
While The Great Shamsuddin Family doesn’t always come together, there is no shortage of well-staged individual scenes. The stage-like production doesn’t help the film’s cause, but it does ensure that its strengths – sharp lines and the performances – don’t go unnoticed.
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