It makes you involved in their problems. It makes you laugh at their idiosyncrasies. It makes you sympathize with and wish that all their issues are favorably resolved. Finally, it makes you feel that God is in his Heaven and all is right with the world, as P.G. Wodehouse would put it when he wrote about families whose basic emotions were love and affection but where characters, with the cleanest of intentions and the clearest of muddled (!!) thoughts, landed in hot waters and at cross-purposes with each other.

At the level of the Indian psyche, The Great Shamshuddin Family revels in a family’s “normal” aversion to an inter-religious match, while retaining close friendships with Hindu counterparts, and how easily such objections are overpowered by simple humanity—all done at a (for the viewer) normal, fun level.

The film centers around Bani (Kritika Kamra), a writer racing to meet a crucial deadline and wanting to leave for the US. Her orderly solo life is disturbed by a series of callers at her door. The first is scatterbrained but hopelessly helpless and panicky cousin Iram (Shweta Dhanwantary), who has Rs. 2.5 million in cash from her ex-husband but has also withdrawn and handed over the same amount from her mother Nabeela (Natasha Rastogi)’s account by forging her signature, to help off a friend who needs it acutely. And the ‘friend’ isn’t picking up her calls since…

Nabeela is set to go for Umrah (a pilgrimage) with Bani’s mom, Akko (Farida Jalal) and Aasiya (Dolly Ahluwalia) and Akko has already pressurized Bani to deliver the passport that she keeps with Bani for “safety.” Bani’s college friend, the hugely eccentric and interferingly pedantic professor Amitav (Purab Kohli) and his flame-cum-student Latika (Joyeeta Dutta) have also come to meet Bani, and as if that isn’t enough, the curt Humaira (Juhi Babbar Soni) who also lands up there. 

More ‘visitors’ drop in, even as the bag of cash is discovered! There is cousin Zohaib (Nishank Verma) who arrives in a panic: he has made his Hindu fiancé, Pallavi (Anushka Banerjee) elope and go with him to the marriage registrar. But the banns could not be completed as the registrar had a heart attack. The couple have nowhere to go as Zohaib has kept his romance a secret from his “great Shamsuddin family”!

Akko drops in with Aasiya to pick up her passport and is shocked to find a conglomeration of the younger family members. Both of them suspect something is being planned. Their fears become certainty when Iram blusters about Shoaib marrying a girl of his choice! When Shoaib’s mother, Saafiya (Sheeba Chaddha) also arrives, the mess intensifies. 

There are further revelations and messes that happen before the whole situation is peacefully resolved. But how does that happen?

The charming 97-minute film does not have a single extra frame and is an unmitigated delight. The warmth and simplicity charm us throughout and we stop thinking of the lovable characters as hailing from any particular community (they could be Hindu, Christian, Parsi, Sikh…anyone!) until Akko’s witty statement about a High Court judge demanding Rs. 2 lakh to register a marriage at night as it is a Hindu-Muslim one. She quips, “At least, bribes should be secular!”

A tight script, pragmatic dialogues (that score over calculated one-liners as they tickle our sense of humor) and adroit direction (Anusha Rizvi’s solid comeuppance from a tepid and drab but acclaimed Peepli [Live] 15 years ago!)  elevate this ‘fam-com’ (family comedy) into the high league of bright entertainment. No one is even gray—they are all normal human beings who have their own priorities!

The honors among the performances are shared by Shweta as Iram—she is simply adorable as the nutty Iram, Farida Jalal as Akko, and Purab Kohli as Amitav. But every actor is effectively cast, and Kritika Kamra as Bani, Juhi Babbar Soni as Humaira, Joyeeta Dutta as Latika, Anushka Banerjee as Pallavi and Sheeba Chaddha as Saafiya all make this family affair a memorable one.

The background score is effective and the technical values are par for the course. But technical expertise is not really needed for this near-stagey yet lovingly made and enacted single-day story in the life of an upper middle-class Delhi family.

My recommendation: Don’t miss this one.

Rating: ****

Disney+Hotstar presents Third World Productions’ The Great Shamsuddin Family Produced by: Ajit Andhare, Alok Jain, Mahmood Farooqui & Vipin Agnihotri Directed by: Anusha Rizvi Written by: Anusha Rizvi Music: Simran Hora Starring: Kritika Kamra, Shweta Dhanwanthary, Juhi Babbar Soni, Farida Jalal, Sheeba Chaddha, Dolly Ahluwalia, Natasha Rastogi, Purab Iohli, Joyeeta Dutta, Nishank Verma, Anushka Banerjee, Anuup Soni & Manisha Gupta.

Related posts:

Three Indian Americans to be Honored with 2025 Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards Madhu S Dutta Launches Her Own Brand Consultancy: HOUSE OF MSD Meet Zubair Vaid of Fairfax County: A magic harvester, master manufacturer, and charity leader   JAINA Convention 2025 to Celebrate Jain Heritage, Foster Unity and Spiritual Growth