Instead of building a simmering chemistry, he inserts unnecessary, lengthy songs and ruins the momentum. In their second meeting itself, they are exchanging rings and eternal promises of ever-lasting togetherness. Here Dutta literally forces the romance down the viewer's throat. In her first public performance itself, she falls hard for the dashing Nawab Sultan (Abhishek Bachchan ). Mesmerized by the lure of fancy clothes, pretty ornaments and carefree dancing, Ameeran, now rechristened Umrao, masters the art of dance and poetry. Born Ameeran to a poor but respectable family of Faizabad, she is kidnapped by an enemy (Vishwajeet Pradhan) of her father (Parikshit Sahni) and sold to a sharp Madame Khanum Jaan (Shabana Azmi ). As in the novel, the story unfolds in flashbacks told to the author (Anwar Nadeem in a mind-numbing performance) by the lady herself, a la Interview With The Vampire (and a shabbily executed one at that).īefore winning the hearts of her mujra-loving admirers in Lucknow, Umrao nursed dreams of a normal life like any other regular teenage girl. The film documents the heartbreaks and disillusionments in the life of gifted courtesan Umrao Jaan (Aishwarya Rai ). Instead it alternates between a hollow, glossy romance and an outrageous period drama. To be fair, even if you steer clear of comparisons, the new Umrao Jaan barely demonstrates the soul or fabric of a classic.
His interpretation of Mirza Mohammed Hadi Ruswa's Urdu novel never achieves the creative brilliance and emotional poignancy of Muzzafar Ali's benchmark 1981 adaptation. The same is true of director J P Dutta's efforts, which are not nearly enough. Recreating the past is hard, and filmmakers seldom succeed in replacing the memory of the past vision with their own.
0 kommentar(er)
