Umrao Jaan Full Movie Torrent
Ania Cozzolino
Many people may like to believe that Umraojaan existed for real, but to this date there is a controversy on whether such a courtesan existed in the 19th century, as depicted in Umra-O-Jaan-E-Ada, a novel written in 1904 by Mirza Mohammed Hadi Ruswa.
Says writer Javed Siddiqui, who wrote Muzaffar Ali's 1981 Umrao Jaan, "There have always been two opinions. I believe she never existed in this world. If she existed where is her grave? No one knows till this date. The book of Ruswa became so famous and an Urdu literature classic that everyone thought that Umrao Jaan is a real character, but it is not true."
Born in 1857, Ruswa was a teacher, poet and an author and wrote only five novels in his lifetime. This novel is the story of Ameeran, a girl from a lower middle class family. She is kidnapped as a child and ends up a nautch girl, rechristened as Umrao Jaan.
"The character of dacoit Fazal Ali existed and he was killed in 1856. He was from Gonda and people of Gonda fought against Britishers in 1857 during the revolt because they killed their leader. This fact is recorded in history."
"Secondly," says Amaresh, "there's the character of Azizunbai, the famous courtesan. When the Britishers deposed Azizunbai for plotting against them in 1857, she said she was a disciple of Umrao Jaan, and this fact too is recorded in history."
Interestingly, the new Umrao Jaan will be Bollywood's fourth attempt at telling Ruswa's story. The first film came in 1958, called Mehndi, after which Zindagi Aur Toofan followed in 1975. Then came the 1981 classic by Muzaffar Ali.
The latest director J P Dutta says, "There is still a lot of speculation and awe about Umrao Jaan in Lucknow; whether she was really there, if she is a real character or Ruswa's imagination. Some people also say that she was Ruswa's mother."
Concludes Iftakhar Imam Siddiqui, noted Urdu poet, "I believe Umrao Jaan was not a real character and Ruswa wrote that character reflecting its time. His character Umrao Jaan became more famous than him."
I have been an admirer of the actor for decades now, but try as I may, I miserably failed to review her biography written by Yasser Usman. Even though this non-cinematographic representation of a legendary thespian of our times generated a rush of emotions, and I merely remained loyal to them.
She was a courtesan in a kotha in Awadh, where in the mid 19th century, the culture of nautch girls had reached the pinnacle of cultural refinement in poetry, dance, music. This led to some of them rising beyond being mere entertaining escorts to being formidable, intellectual paramours of the rich, sophisticated, culturally inclined Nawabs.
At the heart of the story is a young girl Amiran, yet a minor, who is kidnapped along with another of her ilk Ram Dai. Amiran, due to her dark, nothing to rave about features is sold to a brothel; whereas the fairer, conventionally beautiful Ram Dai is adopted by the Begum to live with her in her own palace.
But a man of strong intellect is not always one of a strong character. And so she realises, as a weak Nawab fails to offer her a deserving societal acceptance. Accentuating this tragedy, unawares, he marries the conventionally respected Ram Dai brought up as the adopted daughter of the Begum.
Desperate to escape the vicious cycle of her fate, Umrao Jaan seeks solace in different men, only to find herself dejected, unacknowledged, and confined in her kotha; the only place that finally acknowledges her for what she is, with her music, poetry and loneliness.
Cut to 1981. The veteran director Muzaffar Ali makes up his mind to adopt Umrao Jaan for the screen; his Umrao Jaan is to be played by the thespian Rekha. Perhaps his choice was instinctive, but it is she, who would go on to eternalise Umrao on screen like no other. Any attempt in consequent years to emulate the genius of the part she lived would fall flat. Like when none other than the stunning, gorgeous Aishwariya Rai comes face to face with this dawning reality when she made an attempt to reinvent Umrao Jaan once again in 2006. Even her famous, ethereal beauty fails to come to her rescue from the dismal fate of the reinvented Umrao Jaan.
As her superstar father flourished and reached the pinnacle of stardom in the South, Pushpavalli struggled with Bhanurekha, her sister and her other half siblings (all born out of wedlock) to make ends meet.
As her father lined up awards, Bhanurekha Ganesan lined up the doors of producers for meagre roles to keep her family going. At a very tender age, Bhanurekha learnt that to survive as a woman in this dark, lethal world is dangerous. It is shamelessly easy to abuse and take advantage of a minor who no one feared, respected or cared for. All the more reason that she bore the cross of her famous title and her illegitimacy.
In the same year of her arrival, there was another south Indian beauty who was launched: Hema Malini. Hema Malini was far well placed in society, knew Hindi better, was a trained dancer, and was easily accepted as well as respected by the film industry. On the other hand Rekha was ridiculed. She was made fun of, mocked at, body shamed serially by various industry people.
This is precisely how Rekha began her career in Bollywood. But there was no looking back for her and no luxury of choice. If she was a product of nepotism, then this was her biggest curse. Back home, she had mouths to be fed, debts to be cleared and had only one choice, the choice to plod on for survival. She began with B grade films, signing them in heaps. Her aim had nothing to do with acting and everything to do with money.
It was the veteran Gulzar who had spotted a special spark in her in the underrated film Do Anjaane, and shocked everyone by casting her in such a serious role. Though she had slowly fought her way into being a glamorous prop for the male leads by then, no one had ever considered Rekha as any kind of an actor.
Bhanurekha Ganesan, the unacknowledged daughter of her star father, saw to it that she was now a star herself. She had finally managed to silence her critics once and for all. The once dark, gauche, oddly dressed girl with a strange accent was now a gorgeous, fashionista Diva, a star, dancer, and actor with an enviable Hindi diction and an outstanding voice modulation (the last two, I personally believe, none of the other non Hindi speaking actresses including her more welcomed contemporary Hema Malini, could accomplish anywhere near her.)
Farooque Sheikh has been quoted as saying that on the sets of Umrao Jaan, she left the unit spellbound with her Urdu dialogue delivery. All others -Naseer, he himself, even Raj Babbar (all of them having had a prior familiarity with Urdu), she was the only non Urdu speaking actor around the set. Yet her dialogue delivery in the film remains exemplary till date.
Though her professional career took her to dizzying heights, it was in her personal life where Bhanurekha was time and again reminded of the inevitability of this inescapable fate. She was never formally accepted by her father, and despite several link-ups and rumours of secret marriages, she was never formally accepted by any man as his legal wife. The only legal association she dared to attempt (businessman Mukesh Agarwal) met with dangerous consequences within months.
Though there is no evidence of Umrao Jaan being a real historical character of the 19th century, Mirza Hadi Ruswa had once confessed that the protagonists of all his novels were real, living human beings, whom he had himself met and known at some point of time.
The author was no more alive in the 20th century to witness Umrao coming back to life onscreen. In case he would have had, his earnest take on this immortalized version of his Umrao today would forever remain a figment of our eternal imagination.
Liked this post?Join the 100000 women at Women's Web who get our weekly mailer and never miss out on our events, contests & best reads - you can also start sharing your own ideas and experiences with thousands of other women here!
kaise kar jaa_uu.N sakhii apane dhaam> - raag : kaafiiBhimpalasi. At least, there is a traditional Bhimpalasi
cheez with these words! I will listen to the song again.As an aside, Bhimpalasi would also fit into the time-
progression of the raags.C
^^^^^^^^^^^
> hazarat nizam-ud-din auliyaIs it "jii" or "tum" ? If I hear something THAT different , maybe an
appointment with the ear-doctor (what's the medical term for that- some
-logist ??) is in order :)
> - raag : gujarii To.DiiI came across this bandish in a raag called just "todi". Are "todi" and
"gujri todi" equivalent ?
^^^^^^^^
I think it's sharaN instead of charaN . Might make more sense that way,
don't you think ? It is extremely tough to make the distinction between
those two sounds, though, in the rendition.
^^^^^^^^^^^I think it's "chhanak gaii" (i.e. as a result of paka.Dat bainyaa" ?)
Can someone post which raags the foll. songs from the raagmaalaa in Alaap
are ?naii rii lagan aur miiThii batiyaa.N
piyaa jaane aur jiyaa moraa jaane sakhii
kis kis baat pe dha.Dake chhatiyaa.N
piyaa jaane aur jiyaa moraa jaane sakhii
piyaa naahi aaaaaye
morii aalii kaise kar man samajhaayeArunabha
Pandit C.R. Vyas has sung a vilambit bandish with similar words in Gurjari
Todi. However, the above bandish has long been a standard, I believe it's a
composition of Taanras Khan (RMIC-ers, doesn't his name appear in the antara
somewhere?). Khaiyyam-sahab has used this standard in the movie, and it is in
Miyan-Ki-Todi, (or I suppose you could call it Todi). Gurjari Todi is marked
by the absence of Pancham, while this bandish most definitely has the
Pancham.