A Rare Bollywood Gem
March 31st, 2007 - by 2point6billion.com
Umrao Jaan gets two thumbs up from 2point6billion!
A J.P. Dutta film set in late 19th century India recollects the story of India’s best known courtesan, Umrao Jaan (born as Amiran) who was abducted as a child and sold to a brothel in Muslim Lucknow. Raised to be an educated, civilized and talented artisan trained to sell desire, Umrao Jaan longs for a lost childhood and struggles against her fate of life without love.
Umrao Jaan puts all previous films of courtesans, concubines and geishas to shame; it fulfills all of the requirements needed in telling a good story but what’s more, it puts value into characterizing each role rather than glorifying imagry, sound and stereotypes. Dutta’s choice to emphasize the person over the persona gives the film a true character and the director’s persistence to stick with a storyline sheds a refreshing light on what Bollywood can - and should more often - achieve, to tell a genuine story. These are the things that are missing in most of Bollywood’s recent films which all-too-often overdo the Bollywood ‘rule of thumb’ or the ‘three threes’ - three songs, three dances and three hours - which try too hard to stimulate the audience with superficiality and silly excitement and which lack good storytelling.
Umrao Jaan has the stuff that we want to see in Indian films. It is a must see!
Dutta is by far Bollywood’s best modern troubadour!
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March 31st, 2007 at 4:41 pm
Dear Sumita,
I’m an avid Indian-movie fan and agree that Umrao Jaan is a classic and well-directed and well-told story. I agree with you that most Bollywood films these days do not measure-up to the older classics - most Bollywood films before the 1990s were treasures and like many other Chinese, I grew watching Indian movies - Umrao Jaan reminds me of the great stories that Bollywood used to film. It’s unfortunate that there aren’t more of these.
China’s movie industry, like Bollywood, is churning out mostly junk these days - we too used to have good films and stories up until the ’90s, when film directors started to become obsessed with making expensive, and as you say, ‘glorified’ movies that exaggerate the ‘feel’ of the movie rather than telling a good story - because of this, not only do the movies have no meaning, they leave us with no feelings whatsoever. Most of the Chinese films on concubines - with exception to ‘farewell my concubine’ (which was excellent but wasn’t a story about concubines at all…) - are badly directed and are watered-down with empty emotion and they fail to tell a good story. This is unfortunate because China has a lot of stories to tell but the real problem here is that the directors are no-good. China’s movie industry has taken an bigger turn for the worse, today’s Chinese movies are loaded with stuff that directors think people in the west will enjoy - martial arts, submissive Chinese women, superstition…, they’re trying to turn a buck from western viewers but this doesn’t happen because most westerners don’t like to read subtitles and when the movies are dubbed into English they loose any original creativity that may have existed in the first place.
I have higher hopes for Bollywood than I do for China’s film industry. Thanks for your review of Umrao Jaan, Ill keep my eye out for other JP dutta films.
Dr. Chindia
April 5th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
Pleasantly surprised to view Umrao Jaan get a Thumbs Up(2) from you guys. If anything it’s quite an awful movie - as also commented upon not only by mainstream bollywood reviews, critiques but the box office booting it out! The same critiques compare the present version with the Umrao Jaan version from the 60s or the 70s & that they say is a must watch!
Good movies come seldom & far between in Bollywood and some over the past year include Sarkar, Rang De Basanti….Cheers!
February 26th, 2008 at 12:19 am
Hi again,
Its a shame this thread has not progressed further with comments. Its an interesting topic and should be discussed.
Anyhow I enjoyed reading your post as it is relevant to today! Ill check back soon for any added comments, thanks.
February 29th, 2008 at 2:13 am
Evening…,
I enjoyed reading your post as it is relevant to today and I thought I’d add another comment.
Its an interesting topic and should be discussed. Ill check back soon for any added comments, thanks.
It would be great to get this thread really active again!
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March 24th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Hello guys,
Good to be back and I thought I’d add another comment. Its an interesting topic and should be discussed.
Anyhow I enjoyed reading your post as it is relevant to today! Ill check back soon for any added comments, thanks.
It would be great to get this thread really active again!