Umrao Jaan- 2006 – A saga remade. 1981 version remains a legend!

Cast: Aishwarya Rai, Abhishek Bachchan, Shabana Azmi, Sunil Shetty, Kulbushan Karbanda.
Direction: J P Dutta

Primary Audience: Adults
Genre: Based on a Book; Drama; Romance; Biography.
Movie Overall Rating: ***** (1 ½ or 2 star out of 5)

Review: Birjis Adeni Rashed

Umrao Jaan 2006 and Umrao Jaan 1981 are two different renditions of the author Mirza Ruswa’s novel. Both had beautiful actresses, Mujra sequences, dazzling settings, exclusive costumes and jewelry, romance, jealousy, sadness behind the glitter, victimized lives, melancholic romanticism, and same story but with variation. The comparison stops there. Rekha’s Umrao Jaan-1981 had more ‘Ada’, passion, ardor, magic, poetry, beautiful music, memorable songs, soulful performances, poignant sequences, rich language and impressive settings, and of course the enigmatic Rekha.

Umrao Jaan - describes the story of a 'Tawaif' or courtesan or cultured prostitute, in a world of ‘khotas’ or parlors of those days. The khota’s were not whorehouses, but exclusive entertainment for a select few patrons to imbibe in beauty, culture and intellect. The tawaif were taught to entertain the high and elite society or the crème de la crème, with their poetry, art, dance, music, fine wine...literature, politics and more. The closest the story of Umrao Jaan can come to in contemporary literature would be the 'Memoirs of a Geisha'. The Geisha comes closest in definition of a tawaif too.

Umrao Jaan -2006 is a romantic tearjerker with the beautiful Aishwarya Rai and the dashing nawab Abhishek Bachchan. This movie adopts the new generation of attitude along with the advanced and improved technology in making this period film. Hence our Nawab is feisty riding horses instead of buggies, dressed in rich angarkhas and shawls, willing to give up fame, wealth and family pride for love. Aishwarya, always color coordinated even to the contact lenses of the eyes, wearing exquisite jadawi jewelry and brocade silk and gota dresses with semi precious stones, dolls a combination of sassy, possessive and jealous but naïve and forgiving image. The Umrao Jaan story gets tailored into a typical bollywood hero, heroine and villain movie!

The movie starts with a very farcical Ruswa giving you poor expectation level for the film, I guess after that, the movie improves in performance or was it that after reducing our expectation level, we started to appreciate anything better than the first scene! Umrao Jaan Ada narrates her sad tale to Ruswa starting from her Abduction and her sale to the Khota mistress Khanum begum( Shabana Azmi plays the same role her mother Shaukth Azmi did in 1981 version with authentic flair, a diabolical combination of charm with condescending attitude) ; Her religious and literary upbringing with the Maulvi/ tutor and his wife who guiltily realize the purpose of their finishing school; The unwarranted jealousy for her fellow dancers and her self doubt; Her commendation as a dancer, her romance, her experience of passion, leading to her adorned as the’ jaan’; Followed by her lovers cynicism, society’s scorn and denigration , ending with her jaded present.

The movie has many minuses than pluses. The Umrao jaan 1981 had beautiful numbers that are memorable even till today. Dil cheez kya hai…; In Ankhon Ki Masti…; Yeh kya Jagah hai doston… couldn’t be revived in the new movie. Pooch Rahen Hai from 2006 falls flat in comparison to Yeh Kya Jagah Hai Doston. The song Salam was ok, but Agle Janam mohe bitya …was a touchy tear jerker and had depth. Pehle Pehel – the song revolves around how Umrao became the ‘Jaan’! Infact the 2006 movie gives more importance to the love, passion, affair, heartbreak etc where as Umrao Jaan 1981 was a broader movie with a bigger canvas and larger elements. The next minus were the dances. They didn’t have authentic khatak motions or emotions. Aishwarya seemed to do Bhartyanatyam meets Khatak numbers! Another large minus was the inappropriate choice of actors. The Ruswa character needs to go through a decade of acting school before he should come in another movie. Sunil Shetty wording out Urdu was utterly incongruous. Many small role actors were extremely amateur. Aishwarya though seems to make a lot of effort; she failed to deliver like Rekha in Umrao Jaan. Was it confidence of her good looks or foolishness which made her accept this role! Abhishek carves a angry young nawab character instead of emulating Farook Sheik which gave his character a stronger personality! To add to the negatives, the movie was also anachronistic - story and time don’t match! I am not sure if bore wells, an important element in the movie existed in the pre- mutiny/ghadar era when this story supposedly took place!

J.P. dutta after having directed excellent movies like Ghulami, Refugee, and Yateem.... heavily blundered in this melancholic romantic movie. He should stick to the violent stories.

Kaun Umrao, Kiski Jaan, Kaisi Ada … Ruswa’s first lines encapsulate this movie too!