This is a perfect watch-with-family movie. It reminded me of Monsoon Wedding released twenty years back.  Gulmohar starts and ends with a family get-together. Under all the merry making are deeply buried hurts and secrets. The opening scene of the movie has a farewell party in which the Batra family bids goodbye to their two-storey house known as Gulmohar villa in New Delhi. The characters and their songs are introduced with a beautiful ghazal, Dilkash, sung by Talat Aziz (as Avinash). It was built by the late senior Batra. The next day the packers are supposed to arrive and dismantle the whole property. The family matriarch, the elegant Kusum Batra (Sharmila Tagore) announces that she has purchased a house in Pondicherry. Her son Arun (played by Manoj Bajpai) is bewildered by his mother’s decision. He too is unhappy as his son Aditya (Suraj Sharma) has planned to live separately with his wife. Meanwhile Arun’s wife Indira (Simran) tries her best to keep peace among the three generations. There are other relatives too like Kusum’s brother-in-law Sudhakar (Amol Palekar), his son (Anurag Arora) and his grandson (Sriharsh Sharma). Though being quite senior, it seems that Sudhakar hasn’t gained any wisdom in all these years. He is full of hatred and bitterness. In the first stretch the audience gets to see the back story of all the characters in the movie, with the story shifting from one character to the other. Despite living together, every character feels isolated like Aditya who is struggling to launch a start-up, while his sister Divya (Kaveri Seth) has relationship issues. Arun is bewildered and struggles to understand his mother’s sudden decision to shift to Pondicherry. He wonders if everything will be the same again. He tells Indra, “Sab bikhar gaya, sab dhundhla sa ho gya” (Everything seems to be foggy and scattered).

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Debutant director Rahul V. Chittella has to take a grip of the story telling in the latter half of the movie. What reminded me of the Monsoon Wedding was the sparks that fly between the house staff Reshma and Jeetendra (played by Santhy Balachandran and Jatin Goswami). This film makes one realize that the house staff are not invisible people; they too have their complicated lives. In fact, one of the best lines is delivered by a helper Paramhans (played by Chandan Roy). He tells his friend Jeetendra, “Jo kaam dil se ho sakke, us pe dimag pe kyu zor de?” (if you can do something with all your heart, why stress your brains?). He stresses on learning English and at one point he remarks, “In life we just need hope and love”.

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Director Rahul V. Chittella is also the writer of this movie; along with co-writer Arpita Mukherjee he has tried to load this movie with lots of themes such as same sex love, religious tolerance and father son relationship etc. Manoj Bajpai gives an excellent performance making the viewer believe that no one could have played the character of Arun better than him. Watching Sharmila Tagore and Amol Palekar was a heart-touching experience. Their mere presence elevates the whole screen.  Sharmila Tagore’s dialogues and simplicity as well as underlying boldness are one of the reasons why this film is so likeable. The film is a rare nugget in the era of crime and action films. Gulmohar tells the tale of broken family values, ties, and complex connections, as well as the influence of family on decisions that may significantly alter one’s life. The movie may seem to be long and dull at points, but in the end, it will leave you feeling happy and fulfilled. It could even give you new insights about your own family.

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Overall, this film is a must watch especially if you crave quality family dramas. What I personally like about this movie is the fact that it’s fine to have secrets in life and Sharmila Tagore’s wordings “It’s meant to be” just simplifies everything. I like the idea of not having ‘villains’ in the movie - everyone is so engrossed in fulfilling their own stories that sometimes concern for others (even loved ones) take a backseat. The storyline by Arpita Mukherjee and Rahul V. Chittella will evoke strong emotions and thought-provoking moments in nearly every scene. The film is full of symbols. I would rate this move 8.5 out of 10 based on the film’s storyline and Manoj Bajpai and Sharmila Tagore’s beautiful performances.