Gullak is a story of a family of four, spread across 10 episodes. The story is set in a small town in Northern India and focusses on the bittersweet life of the middle-class Mishra family. There are two brothers — the elder, Annu, a job-seeking civil engineering graduate and the younger, Aman, a tenth grader.
Annu and Aman live with their parents in a two bed room individual house with an open-air drawing room and a kitchen. The drawing room is naturally lit, well-maintained and adorned with green plants. There is a modest rope charpoy laid in the centre of the drawing room, which is also the centre for most of the household discussions. On the extension to the drawing room are a sofa and a centre-table to accommodate the guests. Set along the side of the drawing room are an electric motor to draw water and a washing machine. From the hall is a doorway leading to the terrace, which has a small water tank, a basil plant and a few clotheslines.
Annu Mishra is preparing for exams to land a Government job and fails at it, in the first attempt. He resorts to spending most of his time at the local Hanuman temple, offering prayers, performing rituals and hanging out with his friend by the bridge. Annu strives to join the local town head’s political party and hosts the party’s meetings, but to no avail.
Aman Mishra, the youngest in the house, is the apple of the eye of the family. He is naive, wise and very pragmatic. He is shown preparing for his boards all day and he keeps falling asleep while he studies. He gets into a brawl with his brother sometimes, but his love for Annu is unconditional, so much that he doesn’t inform his parents about Annu’s smoking habits and failure in exams.
Their father is a Government employee, working for the State Electricity Board and drawing a meagre salary that is just enough to run the family. The mother is a god-fearing woman with a fair knowledge about the world. She fights for her rights and makes sure her voice is heard. She is very supportive of her sons in their endeavours and has a positive outlook to life. She turns out to be diabetic in the series and is taken care of well by her family.
They have an annoying neighbour, Bittu ki Mummy, the mother of Bittu. She stops by at the Mishras’ house for gossip and ends up being the subject of ridicule of the neighborhood. She is snoopy and is also seen flaunting about being rich.
This story is narrated from Gullak’s (piggybank in Hindi) perspective and he tries to keep track of the inflow and outflux of money in the house. The Mishras try to save money in the smallest of things possible and try to buy something worthwhile, every now and then.
The family spends on kitty-parties for women, weddings of relatives and receives money for hosting parties, and also receives gifts on various occasions. They buy a gearless bike for Annu out of their long-term savings, a mixer-grinder from the money collected from the kitty party and then finally break the Gullak to pay for a door-delivery.
There is one occasion when Aman aces the board examinations and scores the highest in the town. The result is quite unexpected and all of them double-check if it’s the same Aman Mishra. The neighbors throng the house when they get to know of Aman’s success and gift him with money.
Meanwhile, Annu gets frustrated about being denied a position in the party and comes back home with a heavy heart. When his mother asks him where he had been all day, he breaks down saying he went to earn the respect his parents never had in the society. There is complete silence in the house and Annu regrets what he just spoke.
The most heart-touching moment in the tale is when they try to take a family photograph after Aman’s success and Annu keeps standing a foot away from his father. In the end, the father bridges the gap and brings Annu as close as possible and they have smiling faces and eyes welled with tears. The ending is all the more sweet when Aman gives away all of the gift-money to Annu to fix his broken phone.
This series is not just an account of accounts of money transactions, but also that of various encounters in the life of an ordinary man. Despite the fact that money comes and goes, the family tries to be there for each other and they live happily ever after.
