The Great Shamsuddin Family – My Flash Review!

It was by chance that I found this film on Jio Hotstar, having not seen or heard much about it in these promo-heavy film-release days. That it is directed by Anusha Rizvi, whose earlier film Peepli Live was adorable, helped. Despite not boasting any big stars, the movie, with its simple, stage play like storytelling, is refreshing to watch.

The whole film unfolds over a single day, beginning with the main lead, Bani, an author, sitting down to write something that could be life-changing for her. What follows, stretching into the late night, is a series of rings at the doorbell announcing the arrival of unsolicited guests, all of whom are either close relatives or friends of Bani. With every bell ring, we are introduced to a new character with their own whims and fancies, adding to Bani’s headaches, who is already stressed about meeting her writing deadline.

The Great Shamsuddin Family doesn’t follow a typical screenplay format with a beginning, a few knots to untie in the middle, and a climax. Instead, as we see in many Malayalam films, it simply showcases the events of a day when many members of an upper-middle-class Muslim family end up together at Bani’s house, all by chance. This sets up a real comedy of errors, cover-ups, and a series of laugh-out-loud moments, as seen in Crazy Mohan’s plays, but the Director, who also has written the script, keeps the proceedings fairly serious, but for some laugh out moments here and there.

Since this film is all about characters and their quirks, casting and their performances become super critical to translating the writing onto the big screen. Anusha gets it right here with a super cast comprising incredible actors like Kritika Kamra, Shreya Dhanwantary, Juhi Babbar, Farida Jalal, Sheeba Chaddha, Purab Kohli and so on. Of course, the inimitable Jalal and super-talented Chaddha take the cake by stealing crucial moments with their tongue-in-cheek acting and dialogue delivery. Kamra does her role with quiet poise while being at the centre of all the chaos around her during the day.

Under the light veneer, the director doesn’t miss a chance to communicate the subtexts around misplaced liberalism, a polarised mahaul, and some of the dogmas that prevail in society. With many references to the “Shamsuddin Family”, to which most of the characters belong, the sarcasm behind the adjective “great” is not to be missed.

At just over 90 minutes, the film is well cut and tightly made. Though slice-of-life comedy dramas are pretty standard in Malayalam cinema, they are rare in Bollywood. Rarely do you find a Hindi film these days without “Stars”, their elevation scenes, loud action sequences, and random songs, all packaged under the guise of “Theatre worthy experience”.  The Great Shamsuddin Family hits a sweet spot without all these and is a Good Watch. It is streaming on Jio Hotstar.