Desi Galaxy

I can now tell you that there is not a single film maker in India capable of making an Urdu Film. Seriously, it is such a shame to watch Dutta’s Umrao Jaan when you have seen the Muzaffar Ali’s Umraoo Jaan. Even though Dutta’s Umrao Jaan had a lavish budget, Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan but he surely does not have the capability to make a Poetic Urdu movie.

The most disgusting aspect of the movie was poetry and the Urdu accent of Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan. It was artificial and through out the movie not a single character was able to deliver the language, culture and emotions correctly. The overacting of Aishwarya Rai made me cry at her foolish attempts to appear legendary. She is good looking there is no doubt about it but she was totally misfit in the role. I can not believe that a professional film maker would hire Annu Malik to create music for such a movie. I was surprised that JP Dutta didn’t hire any consultants to understand the literary background of the movie. I think he should have hired some writers with background in Urdu screenplay for the movie. Javed Akhter failed miserably too.

Yash Chopra made the similar mistake with Veer Zaara, totally forgetting that Urdu has a different sub culture. If you are going to make some parts of the movie representing Muslim Urdu speaking culture then you must realize that it is not even slightly similar to India’s current Muslim culture. Urdu’s poetic powers demand well balanced screenplay with just the right poetry and dialogs. You don’t need lavish sets and expansive costumes to create the environment. Just look at Muzaffar’s Umraoo Jaan, Her gharara’s had only Gota Kinari on borders while Aishwarya is wearing overly embodied outfits.

The only thing good in the movie was Shabana Azmi who did justice with her role as Khanum.

I would say that if you haven’t seen the original Umrao Jaan, then go ahead watch JP Dutta’s version. But if you have seen the original one then you are definitely going to curse JP Dutta for this humorous attempt to disgrace a classic.

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Aishwarya Rai in and as Umrao Jaan

Review Umrao Jaan on Desicritics