Web Review: Gullak 5 Emerges as Best Season of All

In the non-crime genre, Gullak has been the market leader of sorts. Its feel-good ambience has often been appreciated by viewers despite the low-key laughs and the often-tepid level of humor like some of the duller comedies of Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Basu Chatterjee. Any underlying message or messages are a certainty, and most are presented subtly, though some are projected. 

The basic core is of a family unit bonded by love and emotion: Santosh and Shanti Mishra (Jameel Khan and Geetanjali Kulkarni, both surpassingly brilliant) and their two sons, Anand a.k.a. Annu (Anant V. Joshi) and Aman (Harsh I Am Kalam Mayar). Gullak (the piggy bank or cash-box) is the narrator: in Indian households, it is considered a symbol of small-scale savings or of preparation for a rainy day.

As always, the family has to deal with life’s small and not-so-big hurdles and problems: upgrading the Mishra home with new paint and Wi-Fi installation, and the unavoidable issues connected with them. The pesky neighbor, Bittu Ki Mummy (Sunita Rajwar) and Pinky mama or maternal uncle (Gopal Datt) also cause a lot of heartburn, the former with her overt and often misplaced feminist stance and the latter with the polar opposite—his patriarchal attitude, besides his condescending behavior and shrewd cunning.

Aman returns from college in a nearby town unexpectedly, having ‘started’ a business in astrology to earn money, while Annu, now a medical representative, discovers that he is in love with dentist Dr. Priti (Helly Shah). The doctor has an uncongenial co-practitioner in the same clinic, a dour but successful cardiologist (Harsh Puniwal).

Bittu Ki Mummy creates a mega-nuisance for Shanti with her newfound addiction to social media, while different members of the Mishra clan have to deal with a defaulting Electricity Board officer, Aman’s wisdom tooth and its possible treatment as per science and as per a quack, Pinky mama’s gift of ‘paneer’ (cottage cheese) and its purity tests, and a home loan that the father and son Annu can ill-afford. Aman lands in a soup because of his ‘predictions’ based on a crash course in astrology. Finally, Annu, who has a small secret up his sleeve, is fed up of his non-status in his pharma company after he organizes a dental camp to enhance Dr. Priti’s practice, and wants a startup of his own. Will Shanti, with a selfless gesture about her ancestral money, finance him?

In terms of sheer content and also pace, Gullak 5 gallops ahead of the earlier seasons, and the always-crisp episodes help the grip factor. Laced with solid performances from all the actors portraying the Mishras, the series is buoyed up by excellent relatable sequences and dialogues, and feel-good and warm situations that only a cold-blooded human being will not appreciate.

The supporting cast is excellent, with Sunita Rajwar getting a more importantly pestilential role (!!!) than in the past. Helly Shah as the confused doctor is okay. I liked the sardonic Manuj Sharma as Shashi Ranjan, Abhishek Kumar as Ravi the Cable TV operator, Jay Thakkar as Aman’s friend, Harsh Puniwal as the unpleasant cardiologist, the actor who plays Annu’s boss and the girl who plays Bittu Ki Mummy’s assistant. And above all, the incorrigible Gopal Datt shows his dazzling versatility again as the devious Pinky mama.

In the normally erratic graph that most series follow in subsequent seasons, Gullak 5 finds its best season in the latest one.

Rating: ****

Sony LIV presents The Viral Fever’s Gullak 5 Produced by: Arunabh Kumar Directed by: Abhay Raut & Shreyansh Pandey Written by: Shreyansh Pandey & Vidit Tripathi Music: Simran Hora & Arabinda-Pratikhyaa Starring: Jameel Mishra, Geetanjali Kulkarni, Anant V. Joshi, Harsh Mayar, Sunita Rajwar, Gopal Datt, Helly Shah, Harsh Puniwal, Aashish Bhatt, Abhishek Kumar, Manuj Sharma & others

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