Last Sunday we watched Don and I came out of the cinema hall completely mesmerized. I still walk around proclaiming myself to be Don and every one not towing my line gets the usual one liner "Don ke dushmano ki sabse badi galati yeh hai ki woh Don ke Dushman hai"........
Ofcourse the brunt of this spell is being borne by my better-looking-half (Shveta). I now call her Roma and when she cooks good food I call her Aroma...... :-))))
But Alas! This Sunday that effect was undone. We watched Umrao Jaan and to say the least were disappointed.
Set in the 19th century, ’Umrao Jaan’ is the journey of an eight year old girl called Amiran who is kidnapped and sold to Khannum Sahib [Shabana Azmi], owner of a ’kotha’ in Lucknow. In the 19th century, a kotha was a hub for cultural activities, with education, literature, poetry, styling, classical music, dance ....everything that could make an individual a master in arts. Ofcourse, the money came by romancing rich Nawab’s.
Amiran too became a literate and cultured person and was named Umrao (Aishwarya Rai). ’Ada’ was her signatory name due to her proficiency in writing and presenting poetry. Soon every man in Lucknow wanted to watch Umrao Jaan Ada sing and dance but Umrao desired the attention of only one man - Nawab Sultan (Abhishek Bachchan). While the Nawab reciprocated her feelings, another Nawab, Faiz Ali (Suneil Shetty), is also in love with Umrao Jaan.
Finally, Umrao learns the mean ways of the world outside the protected confines of her "Kotha" and realises she has to live all by herself ever after. The base theme of the story line is wonderfully translated into a song by Javed Akhtar "Ab jo kiye ho Daata, Aisa na kijo.... Agle janam mohe, Bitiya na kijo"..... the lyrics are so soul touching you want to cry out loud.
While mega stars and mega sets make up the charisma of the period it is set in, Umrao Jaan is disappointing largely due to lack of talent from the two most important departments in such a story - Music and Choreography. Since the story line is set on a "Kotha" and the romance between Umrao and Sultan make up most of the story time, song and dance sequences are bound to be aplenty.
Here Anu Malik’s music is monotonus. I am tone deaf and all songs (7 of them from Alka Yagnik)sounded the same to me. The worst part was Alka Yagnik singing in high pitch..... it was shattering to my ear drums. At times I thought the speaker would burst before my ear drums could. I could differentiate only 2 songs because one was sung by Sonu Nigam and the other (which was absolutely fantastic) "Bitiya na kijo" sung by Richa Sharma.
Worst still is the choreography by Vaibhavi Merchant. It is like a school dance..... every step is done like a fancy dress..... word to word replication into action...... for "aao" she will becon with her hands, then "jao" again with a wave of her hands.... I dearly missed Saroj Khan’s expertise in such numbers. What she did in Devdas with just one song "Maar Dala", Vaibhavi Merchant could not do with 8 songs in Umrao Jaan.
On the positive side, the show completely belongs to Ash. After a long break, she has bagged a role which gives her the opportunity to perform to full potential. And she does not waste a single shot. Hats off to her acting prowess.
Yet again Shabana Azmi proves her talent! She is amazing to watch. A strict "kotha" owner, who places logic before emotion, and a mother to all the girls in her custody, at the same time. She emotes with ease. She specially steals the show with her last scene when she bids farewell to the girls! Wow!
The surprise package in the movie is Suniel Shetty. As the high handed Nawab, he delivers his role with a zeal I haven’t seen in him before. By far his best performance to date.
Abhishek Bachan on the contrary looked amused. He had a constant smile on his face, which kept telling me he was enjoying shooting for the film. As if her would break out into a big laugh the moment the director said "Cut". He looked pretty non-serious in the role.
As for J.P.Dutta, he makes the same mistake he made with Refugee and LOC. He shoots too many scenes and then on the editing table does not know which one to chop off. Result is a jerky screen play. Suddenly one scene cuts into the next. For a story like Umrao Jaan, the narration should be smooth as silk. Also, the length of the movie is another JP Dutta signature. The interval comes after 2 hours 15 minutes.....
All in all, a watchable movie.... but on home video. No point spending big bucks watching it in the cinema’s.
Waise I heard JP Dutta is quiet optimistic about the movie going to the Oscars. He even plans a sequel to it with a male protagonist. Rumor is the male lead is being played by John Abraham and the sequel is called "Umrao John"..... ;-)))) Now I’d like to watch that first day first show!