For Ali, this was his swansong-he never made a film that flashed his brilliance after this effort.
#Umrao jaan 1981 movie story movie
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. 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. Melodrama was reigned in, yet music and song held sway. The screenplay was well written and mature in comparison to most Urdu/Hindi films. 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. This is probably why twenty years after it was made the film attracts audiences as it did before. This is a film to be enjoyed by sight and sound-not merely at the level of the story. 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. Each and every shot of cameraman Pravin Bhatt could have been mistaken for the work of Sven Nykvist in the early Bergman movies. 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. Rekha is quite restrained (wish she were more), so is Prema Narayan in this film. 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. What made "Umrao Jaan" stand out? It was the director Muzaffar Ali's flash-in-the-pan directorial effort. "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. To some, it was a film that brought an average, good-looking actress a dream role that fetched her a national best actress award. She looks in the mirror that reflects her destinyįor many in India, this is a film famous for its haunting songs.
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 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. 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. We see her friend and fellow dancer Bismillah finding happiness in her life. We see that Ramdei, who was kidnapped like her but sold to slavery, has now become a happy wife of a Nawab. There is no melodrama or unnecessary loudness and this allows us to really feel for Umrao. With subtlety and grace she underplays her part. However, Umrao Jaan clearly belongs to Rekha. Shaukat Kaifi and Dina Pathak are adequate.
Muzaffar really Farooq Sheikh is brilliant as the young naïve prince and Nasseeruddin Shah is superb as Gohar Mirza. The performances are subtle except of Khanum Jaan's character.
Takes us back in time to what the late 1800s may have resembled. In some of the songs we are shown flashes of old elegant paintings, old fashioned settings and what Lucknow may have looked like. The songs are beautiful and poetry is itself a character in Umrao's life, like a traveling companion. He gracefully shows us Umrao mastering the art of poetry and dance. Ali does not exaggerate with lavish set designs and his adaptation is of a rather lower budget. Muzaffar Ali's adaptation of Mirza Hadi Ruswa's novel remains the most memorable. Though 'Umrao Jaan' has been re-brought to screen just last year.
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