- Umrao Jaan
:"This article is about the
1981 film directed byMuzaffar Ali . For the2006 film with the same title and subject directed byJ.P. Dutta starringAishwarya Rai andAbhishek Bachchan , seeUmrao Jaan (2006 film) .Infobox Film | name = Umrao Jaan
caption = "Umrao Jaan" film poster
director =Muzaffar Ali
producer =Muzaffar Ali
writer =Mirza Hadi Ruswa
Muzaffar Ali
Javed Siddiqui
Shama Zaidi
starring =Rekha Farooq Shaikh Naseeruddin Shah
Umme Farwa
Shaukat KaifiDina Pathak
Prema Narayan
Gajanan JagirdarRaj Babbar
Bharat Bhushan
Satish Shah (uncredited)
music = Khayyam
Shahryar (lyrics)
cinematography = Pravin Bhatt
editing = B. Prasad
distributor =
released =1981
runtime = 145 min.
language =Urdu
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
imdb_id = 0083248"Umrao Jaan" (
Urdu : امراؤ جان,Hindi : उमराव जान) is aBollywood film released in1981 . It is based on the Urdu novel "Umrao Jaan Ada " (1905), written byMirza Hadi Ruswa based on the famous Lucknow courtesan [ [http://www.india-forums.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=419637 Umrao Jaan’s thinking cap] india-forums, 29 September 2006] . The film starred Bollywood actressRekha .Plot
In the year
1840 , a young girl named Amiran (Seema Sathyu) is kidnapped from her family by their neighbour, Dilawar Khan (Satish Shah ) and sold to Madam Khanum Jaan (Shaukat Kaifi) who owns abrothel where she trains courtesans (tawaif ). Amiran, 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, (
Rekha ), catches the eye of Nawab Sultan (Farooq Shaikh ), 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 (
Raj Babbar ), who wooes 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.She sings the song, "Yeh kya jagah hai doston"? -- What kind of place is this, friends? -- a veiled reference to her feelings of dismay at being treated like a "pariah" entertainer by her very own people. 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.
Critical reception
Rekha was praised for her acting, but the box office returns were just average. [ [http://www.boxofficeindia.com/topactresses.htm Umrao Jaan] topactresses, boxofficeindia] The supporting characters were played by
Naseeruddin Shah , Farooq Shaikh,Raj Babbar andBharat Bhushan . Critics responded favourably to the carefully done historical setting.The soundtrack was composed by Khayyam and the lyrics were penned by Shahryar. Several songs from the film, sung by
Asha Bhosle , are considered classics offilmi music: "Dil cheez kya hai", " Justuju Jiski Thi", "In ankhon ki masti", and "Yeh kya jagah hai doston".Awards & Nominations
*
National Film Award for Best Actress -Rekha
*Filmfare Best Director Award -Muzaffar Ali
*Filmfare Best Music Director Award -Khayyam
*Filmfare Nomination for Best Actress-Rekha [ [http://deep750.googlepages.com/FilmfareAwards.pdf Fimfare Awards] Award listings]1981 Songs from the movie
2003 drama by Rana Sheikh
Umrao Jaan Ada was directed by Rana Sheikh and the storyline was written by prominent poet Zehra Nigah. The drama was first released by geo tv. Starring: Amna Bano, Shabbir Jan, Bushra Ansari, Faisal Qureshi, Humayun Saeed, Adnan Siddique, Sadia Imam, Badar Khalil, Mahmood Aslam, Jamshed Ansari, Imran Abbas, Atiqa Odho, and Shakeel. Guest appearances: Meera, Resham, and Jiya AliDirector: Rana Sheikh Costume Designer:
Bunto Kazmi , Asma AkbarJewelry designer: Rehana SehgalChoreographer: Nighat Chaudhry2006 remake by J.P. Dutta
A remake of "Umrao Jaan" was released on
November 3 ,2006 . It is directed byJ.P. Dutta and starsAishwarya Rai as Umrao Jaan,Sunil Shetty as Faiz Ali, Puru Raaj Kumar as Gauhar Mirza andAbhishek Bachchan as Nawab Sultan.Shabana Azmi portrays Madam Khanum Jaan (notably, Azmi's own mother, Shaukat Kaifi, portrayed Madam Khanum Jaan in the original version of the film) [http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/hindi/article/16139.html] . The music is composed byAnu Malik and the lyrics are penned byJaved Akhtar .References
External links
*imdb title | id=0083248 | title=Umrao Jaan
References
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