The two principal characters of the delightfully askew Gulabo Sitabo are always at loggerheads, but the trait that they share – a selfish love for the crumbling Fatima Mahal, a mansion going to seed rather rapidly – constitutes the spine of the story.

The spare, unshowy treatment of the central conflict, which, as the film progresses, creates room for two other key players with their won sets of vested interests, might appear to be at variance with the comedic spirit of the plot.

With the actors giving the film their all – Amitabh Bachchan’s wizened, hunchbacked, curmudgeonly act is the main propellant – Gulabo Sitabo works even when not much seems to be happening on the screen or the characters are beating about the bush.

The best thing about Gulabo Sitabo, scripted by Juhi Chaturvedi, is that it isn’t trying to be a scream. The humour springs from the language and the manner of its delivery. It won’t have you rolling on the floor. But it will elicit mild chuckles every time Mirza (Bachchan) and Baankey Rastogi (Ayushmann Khurrana) have a go at each other over petty matters that slowly snowball out of control.

Mirza and Baankey won’t cede an inch to each other, but fate has a way of asserting itself. In Mirza’s case, it is represented by his Begum (Farrukh Jafar), who is a decade-and-a-half older than him but is no pushover. For Baankey, who owns an atta chakki in town, destiny takes the form of a few bricks in a wall that give way when he directs a kick at it in the exasperation triggered by a fellow tenant who takes longer than usual in the toilet.

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Bollywood’s Mr Disruptor is at it again, rewriting the rules of what the Hindi mainstream hero can dare to do on screen.

Only a couple of months ago, Ayushmann Khurrana was “Dream Girl”, the phone ‘sexpert’ who aces in impersonating a woman’s voice, and makes a living fulfilling fantasies of lonely men. This week, he returns as “Bala”, a 25-year old whose rapidly receding hairline sets off confident issues, because he is constantly fending against rejection in a world that openly discriminates against physical flaws.

Bala” has the Ayushmann advantage, evidently the best thing a filmmaker can hope to work with – creatively as well as commercially – right now in Bollywood.

Watching Ayushmann go as protagonist Bal Mukund Shukla – Bala to friends and family – you understand why casting the actor has been an advantage lately. He has managed to elevate his brand value to that of a star, because the audience flocks to see him. Yet, his characters are rooted in reality, letting writers and directors capitalise on his slant at experimentation.

Niren Bhatt’s script, however, is not solely about Ayushmann or Bala. There is a fascinating tri-faceted reflection of the human perception about looking good. If, on the one hand, Bala is tormented because he is losing out in personal and professional life owing to loss of hair, his neighbour — the darkskinned Latika (Bhumi Pednekar) — is used to another pertinent aspect of bodyshaming since childhood. She is the darkskinned girl in smalltown Kanpur, who is bright enough to carve her professional space as a lawyer, but not bright enough in complexion to interest the neighbourhood cool dude Bala through their growing-up years.

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