By Junaid Alam, November 3, 2006 - 20:56 IST 3 of 6 people found this review helpful
Comparisons with the Muzaffar Ali version are inevitable and so one just cant help it. If Muzaffar Ali created poetry on Celluloid, JP Saab has fallen flat in his version of Mirza Ruswa's interpretation.
give me Rekha any day as Umrao Jaan , though one has to admit that Aishwarya has done a commendable job in the movie. Her emotional scenes leave an impact nevertheless. I guess making a film like Umrao Jaan in these age and times of remixes, fast track plots requires a lot of courage. You can generate that courage to satisfy your creative skills but you cannot translate it into Box Office Succes. That is where JP Saab disappoints. One thing which really bothered me right through the movie was the pathetic diction of practically all the actors. This was meant to be an Urdu Script. beautifully penned dialogues but killed by the diction of everyone Aish, Sunil Shetty , you name them . The exceptions being Shaban Azmi Kulbhushan Kharbanda and surprisingly to some extent Abhishek too seems to have worked on his pronunciations. It would have been better if the director had organised Urdu classes for the cast.
Coming to the film its toooooooo slow in the first half. The songs mar the pace and they are not appealing too. Barring a salam or a agel janam bitiiya na kijo, themusic disappoints big time. The scenes are lengthy and even at times appear repetitive. One could here uneasy howls in the cinema hall.
The Umrao Jaan of Muzaffar Ali is immortal and so is the portrayal of the protagonist by Rekha, Sorry Ash you tried hard but the memories are etched and they belong to one and only Rekha.
one the whoel disappointment big time for people who went to see this film
