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Umrao Jaan |
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| Movie: | Umrao Jaan |
| Director: | J P Dutta |
| Genre: | Biographical/Drama/Period |
| Start Cast: |
Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Shabana Azmi, Sunil Shetty |
| Our Rating: |
*** |
| Review By: | Prabhash k. Dutta |
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 Remake is the buzzword in Bollywood right now and Umrao Jaan is a valiant effort and a nice product of this remake process. It is a valiant effort because in an age, when every single item moves in the fastest possible lane, Umrao Jaan is a film, which takes you through at a speed that warrants you to stop and think a bit. And, it is nice because it deals with the complexities of life.
Umrao Jaan is a period film based on Mirza Muhammad Hadi Ruswa's novel of the same name. JP Dutta's attempt is a remake of the immortal flick by Muzaffar Ali (1981) wherein scintillating Rekha gave life to Ameeran alias Umrao Jaan. It is very hard to resist from delving into comparative perusal for remakes. But just hold for a while!
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 True, that Aishwarya is not as accomplished an actor as Rekha was but she is stunning in the movie. She comes out with an inebriating charm that gets better of everyone at Khhanam's (Shabana Azmi) kotha and just creeps into everyone's mind silently but suddenly. She slowly gets into the skin of Umrao Jaan and becomes a perfect courtesan. Aishwarya has styled this transformation quite beautifully.
Purist would call for Aishwarya's head for mis-pronounciations; she may be pronouncing Khhuda as Khuda or replacing Q by K but that is more than covered by her acting. She may not be as subtle and glamorous in her dance sequences as legendary Rekha was in the original film, but she covers this with her enhanced beauty quotient and extremely emotive eyes. The only and perhaps the biggest fault on Aishwarya's part is that she has been pitted against an actor of Rekha's calibre, and that Rekha just refuses to go out of viewer's mind.
Moreover, there is Abhishek Bachchan as Nawab Sultan, played by Farooq Sheikh in the original version. He is grace personified as Nawab Sultan and has done a fabulous job as a gracious lover and then as a Sultan, whose pride is hurt. The movie may gain commercial success but Chhota B will definitely be benefited by his portrayal of Nawab. Shabana Azmi as Khhanam is impeccable, Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Maulavi Saheb is soothing and Sunil Shetty as Faiz Ali is accurate.
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 It's true again that you would not come out humming any of the songs in the film. Music of the film is a weak link; Anu Malik has simply failed to recreate the magic of Khayyam. But, is it possible to recreate that magic; such things just happen they cannot be planned. Javed Akhtar, however, is brilliant as usual with his poetry. His words exemplify the pulchritude of fast fading art of quality shayari. A few more such films might revive the classic poetry in the world of Bollywood.
JP Dutta's Umrao Jaan as a whole is not just a remake; rather it is a screenplay that introspects into a surrendered-to-fate woman's life. The woman here, however, lives out every tough phase of life and with her moves on life. Umrao loses everything, her home, parents, brother, lover, Kotha, friends and all the well-wishers but she does not let you lose hope. This is the real beauty of the film and its portrayal.
So, go and watch the movie if you love hope, if you enjoy taking some time off for some introspection, if you relish flow of suppressed emotion and most of all if you feel that life is to move ahead, not to run after. |
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