The Great Shamsuddin Family
Hindi - Comedy/Drama
97 minutes
JioHotstar
The Great Shamsuddin Family is a small film, the kind that could easily represent a single day in anyone’s life. As you watch it, it quietly invites itself into your living room, pours itself a cup of chai. Before you realise it, you are smiling at its familiarity.
The film centres on Bani (Kritika Kamra), a writer racing against time to complete an assignment critical for a job interview in Berkeley. Her carefully planned workday begins to unravel when her cousin Iram (Shreya Dhanwanthary) drops in with what appears to be a trivial problem.
Before Bani can fully process this interruption, one by one, her aunts and cousins begin to arrive. Bani, positioned as the emotionally resilient centre of the family is put to the test.
Written and directed by Anusha Rizvi, who previously gave us the social satire Peepli Live, the film is intimately staged, suggesting that it may have originated as a play. The characters are neatly divided across two generations: Bani’s mother and her sisters on one side and Bani with her cousins on the other. What unfolds between them is a gentle, playful tussle, rooted more in affection and habit, than actual conflict.
The greatest strength of The Great Shamsuddin Family lies in its performances. The acting is so natural that it often feels as though the camera has simply wandered into a real household. The senior cast, in particular, brings a kind of winter warmth to the film. Farida Jalal (as Akko), Dolly Ahluwalia (as Bani’s mother), and Sheeba Chaddha are gold. Their scenes feel effortless with their crackling chemistry.
Among the younger characters, Shreya Dhanwanthary is particularly endearing as the bumbling Iram. Juhi Babbar brings composure and quiet grace as the eldest cousin. Not every character addition works equally well; Bani’s professor friend (Purab Kohli) and his new student-girlfriend (Joyeeta Dutta) feel slightly forced, present largely to pad the humour rather than deepen the narrative.
Kritika Kamra does a very good job as the emotional center of the Shamsuddin family.
In its compact runtime, the film touches upon multiple themes, ambition, family expectations, feminism, inter-religious relationships, and generational differences. Crucially, it never becomes heavy-handed. The tone remains light, affectionate, culminating in a resolutely happy ending.
The Great Shamsuddin Family is best enjoyed with weekend chai and samosas, a gentle film that softens the thought of an approaching Monday.
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