UMRAO JAAN – fails to recreate the magic of Umrao Jaan

Rating:- * 1/2

J.P. Dutta totally fails to recreate the magic of Umrao Jaan.

No excuse for shoddy poetry, clichéd verses, loose screenplay, wrong casting, bad art and not enough research, when you are recreating a classic era and world of poetry.

Quite obviously, UMRAO JAAN, Dutta’s latest outing, evokes tremendous anxiety. Sadly, it’s bound to meet with diverse reactions/feedback…

In fact, it wouldn’t be wrong to state that the lethargic pacing of the songs coupled with the unnecessary length of the film and superficial performances make UMRAO JAAN a bejaan experience!

A story of a courtesan and a poetess in her own right, Umrao Jaan [Aishwarya Rai] was a name to reckon with in Avadh. If Lucknow was the heart of Avadh, Umrao was the heart beat.

In the year 1840, a young girl named Ameeran stays with father [Parikshit Sahni]. a jamadar at the ‘Bahu Begum ka Makhbara’ in Faizabad. A pious and simple man, he gave evidence in a case against Dilawar Khan [Vishwajeet Pradhan]. Dilawar was sentenced to jail for ten years. After finishing his sentence, Dilawar came out, only to kidnap little Amiran, cart her to Lucknow and sell her to a kotha owned by the astute Khanum Sahib [Shabana Azmi]. This was the vengeance and a few rupees as bonus.  Ameeran, renamed Umrao Jaan, learns to read, write, dance, sing, and charm wealthy men. She is no common prostitute, but a cultured woman trained to captivate men of wealth and taste.

A grown-up Umrao Jaan, Ash, catches the eye of Nawab Sultan (Abhishek Bachchan), and the two fall in love. But the Nawab must marry to please his family, and Umrao's heart is broken.

She meets a dashing bandit chieftain, Faiz Ali (Sunil Shetty), who woes and wins her. She flees with her dacoit, hoping to marry him and leave the world of the courtesan far behind. But her lover is killed by local police and she is left alone, with no choice but to return to her old life.

Soon, the British attack the city of Lucknow and the residents, including Umrao Jaan, are forced to flee. Umrao's party of refugees stop in a small village near Lucknow. The residents ask the courtesan to sing and dance. Umrao, looking about her, realizes that this is her village, Faizabad, her family, the place from which she was kidnapped. She had been so young when kidnapped that she had forgotten it all, but now it all returns to her.

Afterwards, she meets her mother and younger brother, who had thought that she was dead. Her mother would be happy to welcome her back into the family, but her brother forbids it -- she is tainted by her profession and must not return to embarrass them.

At the end of the film, Umrao is left alone, with nothing but her profession and her poetry.

Anu Malik’s music is a drawback, and the songs here add to the boredom. O.P. Dutta’s dialogues are exemplary. Costumes [Anna Singh and Bindiya Dutta] are rich. Cinematography [A. Bose] is good. The sets [Bijon Das Gupta] are classy. Choreography [Vaibhavi Merchant] is good.

Aishwarya Rai looks ethereal. Abhishek Bachchan is okay, although one strongly feels that he’s capable of so much more. Shabana Azmi does the part with the same finesse as her mother in the old classic. Suniel Shetty looks miscast. Divya dutta, Ayesha Jhulka, Kulbhushan kharbanda, Himani Shivpuri, etc. lend good support.

Goof-ups : The moot link point of Ameeran & Umrao’s childhood memories is the hand – pump. (The hand pumps were not in existence during the era of Umrao Jaan. Did anyone note this!!)

Good hype but disaster on boxoffice.