Umrao Jaan

I first saw Muzaffar Ali’s Umrao Jaan as a child and still remember being taken in by the film’s story and the performances of the lead actors. When I could understand the film better, I saw it again and again and again. To date, it has remained one of my favourite films with some of the best dialogues, scenes, music and, of course, lyrics.
The film’s strength, I still believe, was its narration. The tragic story of Ameeran, kidnapped and sold in a `kotha’, her failed love life and the sad and lonely life she has to reconcile with in the film’s end, was beautifully told. The grandeur in the film was subdued, didn’t shroud the story or the characters. As Muzaffar Ali himself had said that he didn’t wish to go for elaborate sets as it was the story and the acting of the lead roles that he wanted people to notice. And it worked as planned by the gifted filmmaker.
There isn’t, according to me, even the slightest flaw in the film’s gripping direction. It takes the viewer to a different era when girl children were randomly picked, sold and later disowned by their own parents/family. The most heart rending scenes being that of a teenager Ameeran being kidnapped even as she played with her kid brother and that of her returning home and her brother declaring to her that she did not exist for them. The best and biggest tear-jerker scene, of course, is when Umrao returns to the kotha she had left and removes the dust from the mirror in her room.
Rekha, though I was never really fond of her, gave her finest performance of a sad and lonely courtesan seeking love. Farooq Sheikh was a treat to watch as he played his role of a rich and spineless lover believingly. Naseeruddin Shah as a pimp was predictably as brilliant as the film’s award-winning soundtrack.
While all the songs from this film were hits, my all-time favourites have been `Yeh Kya Jageh hai doston’, which she sings while performing in Faizabad where she was kidnapped from as a child. The best lines that speak of her plight in this song, that has haunted me to date, are `tamam umra ka hisaab maangti hai zindagi.. yeh mera dil kahe to kya ..yeh khud pe sharmsaar hai’ and… `mere liye bhi kya koi udaas bekarar hai’.
Yet another melody is `zindagi jab bhi teri bazm mein…’ which has this gem of a romantic yet realistic line…`har mulaqat ka anjaam judai kyon hai’.
With such a masterpiece already crafted, why then would I watch a new version of the film, whose promos have been enough to put me off.