Umrao Jaan

For many in India, this is a film famous for its haunting songs. To some, it was a film that brought an average, good-looking actress a dream role that fetched her a national best actress award.

"Umrao Jaan" did not create ripples among most critics when it was made because the story line revolving around a singer/dancer who sells her body was old hat for most Hindi/Urdu film-goers.

What made "Umrao Jaan" stand out? It was the director Muzaffar Ali's flash-in-the-pan directorial effort. His earlier film "Gaman" lends poor comparison to "Umrao Jaan." Ali was able to get superb performances from the ensemble of Bollywood actresses to whom subtlety is still a foreign concept. Rekha is quite restrained (wish she were more), so is Prema Narayan in this film. The effect is stunning. Some of the Indian actors could do so well, if only they were well directed!

But good direction does not come merely in dealing with actors. Each and every shot of cameraman Pravin Bhatt could have been mistaken for the work of Sven Nykvist in the early Bergman movies. The composition of each frame, taking three objects in perspective (faces, chandeliers, minarets, etc..) and juggling with the one, two, or three objects for composition within the frame brought a maturity to Indian cinematography rarely seen. This is a film to be enjoyed by sight and sound--not merely at the level of the story. This is probably why twenty years after it was made the film attracts audiences as it did before. It has stood the test of time. It was unfortunate that Indian critics by and large grouped it with commercial cinema churned out from Mumbai merely because of its song and dance component and its all too familiar theme for Indian audiences.

The screenplay was well written and mature in comparison to most Urdu/Hindi films. Melodrama was reigned in, yet music and song held sway. The melancholic thread in the film is developed right up to the dried leaves in the final scenes knitting together a very feminist tragedy by a male director. In many respects, this film was a major movie from India in the Eighties, on par with the efforts of some of the more notable directors like Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Adoor Gopalakrishnan.

For Ali, this was his swansong--he never made a film that flashed his brilliance after this effort. Probably he knew he could not improve upon this effort....

Though 'Umrao Jaan' has been re-brought to screen just last year. Muzaffar Ali's adaptation of Mirza Hadi Ruswa's novel remains the most memorable. Ali does not exaggerate with lavish set designs and his adaptation is of a rather lower budget. He gracefully shows us Umrao mastering the art of poetry and dance. The songs are beautiful and poetry is itself a character in Umrao's life, like a traveling companion. In some of the songs we are shown flashes of old elegant paintings, old fashioned settings and what Lucknow may have looked like. takes us back in time to what the late 1800s may have resembled.

The performances are subtle except of Khanum Jaan's character. Muzaffar really Farooq Sheikh is brilliant as the young naïve prince and Nasseeruddin Shah is superb as Gohar Mirza. Shaukat Kaifi and Dina Pathak are adequate. Prema Narayan is decent.

However, Umrao Jaan clearly belongs to Rekha. With subtlety and grace she underplays her part. There is no melodrama or unnecessary loudness and this allows us to really feel for Umrao. We see that Ramdei, who was kidnapped like her but sold to slavery, has now become a happy wife of a Nawab. We see her friend and fellow dancer Bismillah finding happiness in her life. Finally we see Umrao moving along the path of life: trying to forget the past, trying to find happiness and love or trying to escape from it all. She manages to independently make a living reciting poetry, ghazals and dancing but though people yearn to hear her sing and watch her dance, they refuse to give her the respect of a 'decent' woman. As we see Umrao travelling through life trying to find her own place, in the end she returns to that very place (now abandoned) picking up from where she left as she has no place else to go. She looks in the mirror that reflects her destiny

My Rating : 9/10

Hauntingly beautiful songs. A dream role for Rekha. This won her the National Award for Best Actress. 'Umrao Jaan' is poetry on screen and director Muzaffar Ali weaves a delicate yet sad tale of a 19th Century courtesan who, much like Rekha in her real life, has to deal with unrequited love.

The cinematography is extremely striking and every frame is lavish with glamorous costumes and intricate, sparkling jewellery.

'Umrao Jaan' is a classic - a poetic memoir of love and loss and the yearning for a happily ever after that never seems to come.

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.

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 courtesan

See 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.