An old Muslim man, bent with age, in a poor neighborhood of Lucknow and his sick wife run a rental property in the old Indian style . The Haveli , which was once a 'mansion' of the rich, is now decrepit and is supported only by bricks and the owner is so poor that he steals light bulbs and cycle bells from tenants and pawns them for a few rupees. There is constant bickering between the old man and one of his young tenants. That is what makes the movie so humorous and real!
The owner complains that the young renter will not increase the rent and the young man replies 'we are not going to do that' and threatens to invite his young friends to beat the old man up!! The old man blocks the renter with his wide arms and wants to charge the young renter for parking his mobike on his property, but the renter unabashedly threatens to run the bike over him if the old man does not get out of the way. The humor is in the Lukhnavi language and the rebellious tone in which the characters speak.
The Archeological Society jumps in to declare the building a historical site for the tourist traffic. A builder wants the land to build a property, the old man and a bold lady tenant, who acts as his confidant, agree to sell it. When the lawyer mentions a 500,000 cut for the old man, the poor man almost passes out and is in shock for the rest of the day. He has never seen that much money.
In the end, we realize that the property belonged to Fatima, his wrinkled wife. She runs away to an old lover and gives the property to the lover for a rupee!! The poor Fatima is now treated like royalty at her new home. The old man and his young tenant are asked to stay outside the gates!!! All the efforts of the old man to ensure that he gets the property when his wife dies are in vain.
As the two sit on the rocks by the sea, towards the end of the movie, the young man asks 'why did you marry Fatima ?' and the old man grunts ' For the Haveli!' and then the young man scans the old man from head to toe and asks ' what did she see in you ?' and the old man replies 'My Jawani (youth)'.
Initially I assumed that Indian cinema has found a new gem in the form of that old man. I was almost past half the movie before I realized that the old man is the popular actor Amitabh Bachchan. He is well hidden behind the big nose (prosthetics?) and the Muslim dress. There is no loud dialogue and no high bass sarcasm and no fancy dance moves. Just the usual mumbling and grunts associated with old men.
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