The Great Shamsuddin Family is a seemingly light chamber piece that hides its claws of social commentary under the chirpy banter of an apartment full of women, observes Deepa Gahlot.
It would rate quite high on the list of nightmares -- the random arrival of a succession of relatives and friends at the door, when a potentially life-changing project has a deadline coming up in a few hours.
Anusha Rizvi's film The Great Shamsuddin Family comes too long after her first, Peepli [Live] (2010), and is a seemingly light chamber piece that hides its claws of social commentary under the chirpy banter of an apartment full of women, who were not meant to be there.
The well-appointed Delhi apartment belongs to writer Bani Ahmed (Kritika Kamra), who has to submit a piece to an American employer, if only the doorbell would stop ringing!
She has put off a visit by her mother, who wants to pick up a passport because she and her sisters suddenly decided to go on Umrah -- because why not? -- when Bani's sister, Iram (Shreya Dhanwanthary) lands up, with a large amount of cash that she needs to deposit, and the bank is shut.
This excuse for imminent mayhem is not quite plausible, but the point was to get the third, older sister, Humaira (Juhi Babbar Soni) into the house to help manage the mess the dim-witted Iram has got herself into.
A friend, Professor Amitav (Purab Kohli) drops in with his latest girlfriend (Joyeeta Dutta) because they can't find a drink in the city.
Bani's mother Asiya (Dolly Ahluwalia) pops in with her older sister, Akko (Farida Jalal), and as the lies the younger women invent to explain their presence start to fray, the third sister, Safiya (Sheeba Chaddha), lands up too.
Then, Nabeela (Natasha Rastogi), the wife of their brother arrives, puzzled at the impromptu family gathering.
There is constant bickering and taunting -- Bani's lifestyle, her inability to make proper tea, old family resentments, the mystery of the bag of money and so on.
'Why are you dressed like a Pakistani?' Akko asks Safiya, who is in hijaab.
Already dealing with a broken relationship and a career upheaval, Bani is pushed to the point of aggravation.
A headline on a web site about the arrest of a writer, a possible flare up on the outskirts, Bani's mention of 'hum log' that annoys Humaira hints at the fears even upper class Muslims have to cope with, but the real emergency that tests family bonds and threatens to escalate their fragile security is yet to come.
The apartment that was looking large and lavish starts to seem claustrophobic.
Still, the rules of civility are such that nobody asks why the nosy, pedantic professor and his smug girlfriend are still around, when they are not exactly welcome.
Rizvi keeps the focus on the women and how they come together as one, when a united front is called for.
But it also quietly adds the issues that the Shamsuddin family has to solve when the conditions outside the safety of the flat threaten to turn hostile.
The bitter pill is coated with humour, and it is Farida Jalal who leads the fine ensemble of actors. She has the ability to simply rule any space she walks into.
She also gets the best line in the film -- 'At least corruption should be secular.'
The Great Shamsuddin Family streams on JioHotstar.