A film maker of the status of J.P. Dutta carries the onus of validating his position and his credibility effectively, with every new film he essays. yet Umrao Jaan despite being a subject par excellence failed to strike a chord.
The trouble with this film is primarily one of sincerity of approach. The director seems disinterested and non-passionate. he was as if laid back in his attitude quite happy with the star cast and over confident of the acclaim coming his way..not realising that a director cannot afford to rest on his laurels..he has to prove himself with every film, and climb a rung higher..obviously JP does not subscribe to this theory the least bit.
If you are one of those who has watched a Muslim saga such as this for the first time, you might get taken in by the synthetic opulence. but if you have like me been an avid watcher of Bollywood flics down the ages and have devoured films like Pakeezah, benazir, Mughal e azam, Umrao jaan, then this film will come across as a cheap imitation of the classics with nothing new to offer, and not even a close reesemblance to a film of the same genre made with much passion by other stalwarts.
Not only is the story reduced in its drama , and theatrics at the hands of a disintersted maker, but lack of skills technically is sorely visible.The camera angles are poor and non-existent, lighting is ordinary in most scenes, and the effect is disastrous. Long never ending scenes, profusion of songs, not remotely melodious, and no sparks even from Ash and abhishek make for a dull fare.
if anything this film is a classic example of how a superb story and plot can get irreparably ruined and how much really depends on the maker to convert his film inot a dud or a hit.
Despite the curiosity of Ash and abhishek romance, it was as if they barely know each other..not even in the most passionate bedroom scenes does one feel a glimmer of reality or a semblance of lovers enjoying their togetherness..plastic all of it.
The length is a problem, but cannot be the cause of its flopping so miserably..it is that the film maker could not hold the interest of the audience, he had no clue to editing the scenes crisply and unaware of the screeplay flaws..surprising that its coming from an experienced Director.
Music was uninspiring..despite wonderful lyrics from the magic pen of Javed akhtar..but its like covering the moon with dark clouds ..how can the light shine forth?
Performances wise it was only Shabana who proves her histrionics and her calibre..despite the director... Aishwarya was disappointing, though one can understand why..the brief was all wrong.Abhishek failed to rule, again for lack of proper guidance..He was like a diamond presented to the world without being polished.
Considering that crores were spent to produce this film, it was a failure on the part of the maker one hundred percent. that both the viewer and most critics did not give it a thumbs up..anyone who says that it was a great effort which has not received acclaim needs to polish his knowledge of film making .