Begum Jaan is a remake of Rajkahini, but director Srijit Mukherji has only retained the theme of the story and brought about changes in screenplay and dialogues that are tailor-made for Vidya Balan
PLOT:
Story of 11 prostitutes, one abused girl, one small kid, one old lady, one loyal pimp, one honest ex cop and one school master They live and spend majority of their time In a Brothel.
On the eve of the Independence, the chairman, of the Border Commission, Sir Cyril Radcliffe decides to divide India and Pakistan into equitable halves. What the administration does not account for is the line running the middle of Begum Jaan’s(Vidya Balan) brothel situated plonk on the border; with one half falling in India and the other in Pakistan. After the events of partition, they are asked to evacuate, but they refuse. It causes a soft, at times hard conflict between the prostitutes and the govt.
It’s a good period and story to revisit because even 70-years after partition, anything around it still piques interest. Then again, here the narrative deals less with the horror of the divide and serves more as an ode to the spirit of Begum; widowed in the childhood and sold to a brothel. Also Director Srijit Mukherjee is revisiting his Bengali film Rajkahini.
PERFORMANCE:
Vidya invests fully in Begum and her dialogue-bazi(a lot of which is raunchy) will get ceetis. Vidya Balan dives into her character with the fierceness and aggression. Vidya Balan is the show stealer who carries the film on her shoulder, though this isn’t surprising for anybody as we have seen Vidya Balan doing the same in her previous films too. But Begum Jaan will undoubtedly remain one of her best performances mainly for her boldness and her realistic dialogues. Rest of the cast superbly supports and helps to make the movie as interesting and watchable as one can. Naseeruddin Shah was wonderful in his interesting cameo, and Chunkey Pandey surprises in his new avatar as a merciless contract killer. Gauhar Khan delivers her best here, and Pallavi Sharda was in her terrific form. Vivek Mushran, Pitobash, Ashish Vidyarthi, Rajit Kapur and Rajesh Sharma were brilliantly great. Ila Arun didn’t get much scope, and others supported well
MUSIC:
The Bhatts and the director Srijit Mukherjee have homed in on Anu Malik, the man who gave them unforgettable music albums in the ‘90s and millennium, to rustle up hummable songs that are perfect for the film’s needs, fresh for the audience, and are like water after a long and parched desert journey to music buffs craving for that heady mix of good verse, a lovely tune, accomplished singing and soothing but catchy orchestration that film music used to be and so rarely is now. let us look at the Khayyam-Sahir classic that Anu Malik has so caressingly re-created – “Woh Subah.” A slow, languid and poignant take on an already placidly optimistic yet hard-hitting song “Woh Subah Kabhi To Aayegi”(That morning of hope will dawn one day), from “Phir Subah Hogi”(1958) sung by Mukesh and Asha Bhosle, uses an unreleased verse by Sahir for the ‘mukhda’ – “Woh Subah Hamin Se Aayegi”(We will make that fine era arrive). Arijit Singh is completely dwarfed by Shreya Ghoshal as she takes the song to another level of sublimity. But we must award the best song, the cream of the cream, to “O Re Kaharo.” So the scores have done well for the film
CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Cinematography captured the mood well and dialogues were bold and attention-grabbing.
Srijit’s execution is top-notch where some of the dramatic sequences in the movie truly stay with you. However, some of the sequences gets unnecessarily drag-off. Also, the tension-level in this expected hard-hitting drama was less, plus few of the sequences were not required and relevant as well to take the main story forward.
GENRE: Action, Drama
So is it a Paisa-Vasool film? Well, going by the above-mentioned expectations the film is not worth to watch as a whole. However, there are some gritty sequences along with bravura performances by the star-cast, for which one can watch this movie at any point of time. Otherwise, one can skip this Vidya Balan-starrer movie!