jmathur_swayamprabha Umrao Jaan(1981) is based on the novel - 'Umrao Jaan Ada' of Mirza Mohammad Haadi Ruswa. I happened to watch the movie first and read the novel later. And undoubtedly, director Muzaffar Ali's cinematic version of the story originally written in the nineteenth century and said to be the true story of a true character, is better than the written work.The story belongs to the Tawaayaf(courtesan) Umrao Jaan who was born at Faizabaad as Ameeran. After getting kidnapped and sold to a Kotha(brothel) in Lucknow, she grows up and becomes famous among the rich and the elite because of her Shaayari(Urdu poetry) sung in her melodious voice and coupled with her enchanting dances. However she finds almost everybody around him as greedy for her earnings and she continue to move through her journey of life with a sense of complete loneliness within her. Certain males enter her life and raise false hopes in her heart for being able to live a normal married life containing a loving husband, social acceptance and motherhood but finally, she finds that loneliness only is her destiny.Taking the story from the said novel, producer-director Muzaffar Ali himself has written the screenplay and dialogs of this movie in association with Shama Zaidi and Jaaved Siddiqui. This script has been written quite crisply without giving undue footage to anything and not allowing the focus to divert from the principal character and her woes. The narrative with the gloom and loneliness of the principal character prevalent in every moment of it, moves at a reasonable pace without allowing any laxity or boredom to creep in. The audience is not only kept engaged in the narrative and glued to the screen for more than two hours but also made to feel the pain, the feelings and the stuffiness of the pivotal character. It is a very impressive movie, no doubt.The ending scene is just superb in which Umrao Jaan wipes the mirror to see her face in that. It's an example of sheer brilliance on the part of the filmmaker who conveys the permanent sense of loneliness in the courtesan to the audience leaving the theatre without any spoon-feeding. Anybody who has watched this movie on the big screen must have left the theatre with a throbbing in his / her heart.Umrao Jaan can be termed as pain-filled poetry written on celluloid. It stirs, moves, pinches and brings tears to eyes. It's a journey made by the spectator alongwith the courtesan known as Umrao Jaan. Within a few minutes, the narrative envelops the viewer and makes him a part of the unusual story of the protagonist being told to him.The art director has brought the period of the 19th century alive on the screen. The complete milieu including the architecture, the dialect, the clothes, the style of living etc. are authentic. The cinematographer has also left no stone unturned from his side in this regard and thus a realistic account of that era is presented to the audience who also happen to witness the turbulence due to the Gadar or the mutiny of 1857 by a section of the Indians against the British rule.Rekha quite deservingly won the national award for the best actress for the title role played by her in this movie(though Jennifer Kendal Kapoor was a stronger contender for that award for that year for her performance in 36 Chowringhee Lane). Rekha does not seem to be acting, she appears to be actually living the life of Umrao Jaan. Originally a Tamilian, this talented actress has portrayed the Urdu speaking Shaayara cum Tawaayaf in an amazing manner.Farooque Sheikh as Umrao Jaan's lover and all the other characters have also done exceedingly well. Even the small characters of Maulvi Saheb(Gajaanan Jaagirdaar) and Bismillah(Prema Naarayan) are able to leave their imprint in the movie. The romance between Farooque and Rekha is so delicate that the audience can't help falling in love with them and their relationship.Khayyam has composed immortal music with the great Shaayari of Shaharyaar for this movie. All the ghazals and nazms are so touching that any lover of music and Shaayari can keep on listening to them again and again. Dil Cheez Kya Hai Aap Meri Jaan Leejiye, In Aankhon Ki Masti Ke Mastaane Hazaaron Hain, Zindagi Jab Bhi Teri Bazm Mein Laati Hai Hamen, Justujoo Jiski Thi Usko To Na Paaya Humne etc. are heart-conquerors. Most of these are gems in the voice of Asha Bhosle whereas Zindagi Jab Bhi Teri Bazm Mein Laati Hai Hamen is a memorable ghazal of Talat Aziz. The album contains a couple of folk songs also and a classic written by Amir Khusro. However the pain-soaked ghazal (which is placed at the end of the movie) which always brings a flood of tears in my eyes is - Ye Kya Jagah Hai Doston, Ye Kaun Sa Dayaar Hai, Hadd-e-Nigaah Tak Jahaan Gubaar Hi Gubaar Hai.Umrao Jaan is a true classic. A masterpiece. It was remade by J.P. Dutta in 2006 by taking Aishwarya Rai in the title role. Though I found J.P. Dutta's movie as closer to the novel of Mirza Haadi Ruswa, it lacked the soul of the story. If anybody wants to meet the real Umrao Jaan that used to exist some 150 years ago, then this movie only is the perfect choice for him / her.

Ahmad AYAZ I saw it again, after 25 years! I think it is one of the best movies (Indian or otherwise), at par with any famed-Satyajit Ray. It should NOT be even compared with the new Umrao Jaan. The problem is that it is so good that Muzaffar Ali (the producer from Lucknow where most of the movie unfolds) perhaps cannot make a better movie all his life.The film is very restrained, and therefore, a believable story of a Lucknow tawa-if (courtesan, geisha). There are no brave heroes (all flee 1857 Sepoy Mutiny against the English), the robber Faiz Ali dies in an unheroic escape. Owner of house of tawaifs, Madam Khanum, is selfish and exploitative. Nawab Sultan, one of the first clients of Umrao, sees Umarao what she is - a tawaif and abandons her with no compunctions to marry into the wealthy family of her cousin; others hurl insults at Umrao. There is a thin line (if any) between a tawaif and a prostitute/hooker - Umrao sleeps with Nawab Sultan as a matter of routine, and then with the robber Faiz Ali. Urdu poetry (ghazal) is shown to be pervasive in the lives of tawaifs and all around her. The dialogs are in lyrical, delicate and local Urdu, difficult to be appreciated in translation. Acting is superb by all. Songs and Indian Kathak dances (minus one by Nawab Sultan) are mostly in context.Good movies like good books can enrich and teach. Most Indian movies are trash, fantastic escape from reality but not old Umrao Jaan. You could see Lucknow of a bygone era. Sample these:pigeon flight contests (or kabootar baazi, a flock breaking pigeons mid flight from a rival flock) - Indian hop scotch (ikkal dukkal) - the earthen stove (or choolha) - the custom of eating with hands in the kitchen on the floor near choolha - the custom of offering for a saint's shrine (nazar at durgaah) - the custom of arranged marriage between Muslim cousins - the custom of purdah, - the custom of eating betel leaf (or paans) and hookah smoking - the tradition of sellers of bangles and shawls coming home - the incompetent and indolent nawabs who would sell part of the estate for a courtesanSee it if you have not yet; see it again if you have once. Technically, the photography is not as high quality as now - but then in 25 years movie cameras have improved a lot.

sakagaze Muzaffar Ali's UMRAO JAAN was a classy, niche-audience oriented film. Rekha's performance, Khayyam's musical score and the authentic period details, thanks to the discerning filmmaker who is known for subtlety and class, make it a masterpiece. The true appreciation for the film is more than due at this very moment when the entire world is exposed to the crass and glossy remake of the film (or call it the adaptation of the same literary classic by Mirza Haadi Ruswa) by J. P. Dutta. Aishwarya Rai in the 2006 film pales in comparison to Rekha, who played the quintessential tawaaif in Muzaffar Ali's film with perfect poise and elan. Abhishek Bachchan is nothing compared to Farouque Shaikh, and the same can be said when one tries to draw parallels between Suniel Shetty and Raj Babbar, the counterparts in the new and the old films respectively.

arnab_dasswayam Who among the Indians failed to get moved by the advertised displays and cutouts of the Indian actress Rekha in context of Umrao Jaan. Those who saw the film carefully recall it in the silence of sadness and as a class of its own. Umrao, a true character of a highly sensitive female artist of nineteenth century India, could write the wonderful lyrics of her songs, tune the classical melody herself, achieved a magical voice and presented the class of a dance-style, called Kathak. Though finally she came up on top of her fame and popularity in a wide region of India, she remained deserted by her relatives. Her love relations failed to acquire any meaningful social end. Only the audio-visual experience of the film can take one near the heart of the poetic portrayal, brilliantly done by Muzaffar Ali. Ali comes of such a lineage of aristocracy, which had much bearing on the time and cultural milieu of Umrao Jaan in Lucknow. A sensitive Indian viewer might also intuit such a living philosophical background of the spectacular details and technically rare presentation of an excellent narrative. Abducted from her home village along with another friend Ramrey in her childhood Umrao alone was purchased by a pander. She lost the last link to her past, even the whereabouts of her birthplace. Umrao Jaan grew up as a professional dancer and singer in certain art-loving space of Lucknow, where the performer--even the sexually virgin one-- entertained the elite with performance, but could have no legitimate social relation with them. Umrao had to leave her first love, a connoisseur of her performance and a good-hearted handsome prince, whom after many years she finds as married to Ramrey. It was also a matter of chance that one family adopted Ramrey and paid satisfactorily to the same kidnaper. The mature Umrao as a paid entertainer--on the family occasion of the happy and her beloved couple--could readily responds in songs to her amazing feelings of relentless drift of life.All along the narrative of the film the genius of Umrao is shown to expand as an artist and as an author from inside her existential experience. Her songs and dances--wonderfully matching the shifting contexts of her biography--move gradually from deep passion for life to profound existential quarries. A period of historical unrest in the region keeps Umrao floating and troubled to procure her livelihood and to maintain her prestige. After all the un-thought-of turns of life and an effective exposure to the out-world she unknowingly (re)appears in her lost paradise, the forgotten shelter of her birthplace and patriarchal family of origin. On deepest agony and not incredibly the Indian spectators see Umrao herself to accept her social death and ruthless rejection from her family belonging to orthodox Indian patriarchy. Crying her heart out she had to leave her mother, the ever-missing reconciliation perhaps for all. Finally the major associates of her troop also got detached from Umrao. She had to return to the deserted house of Lucknow and starts cleaning the dust spread over the old things. The pale sight of disheveled Umrao reflected in an old mirror concludes the film. The still of a drifting individual on the edge of her career and tormented life suspends an air of subtle nostalgia.Except editing all the aspects of the film making is overwhelming. Such an extraordinarily articulate film needs to be (re)viewed over again, especially in the inter(con)textual backdrop of a memoir of a loner, a genius, a beggar, a performing artist, an author and above all a female that is successfully reproduced by a director as a stream of nostalgic images.