MovieChat Forums > Umrao Jaan (2006) Discussion > Non-traditional Bollywood Film

Non-traditional Bollywood Film


I personally felt this film was a nice change from the usual bollywood crap. It was nice to see an Indian period film. At least there weren't loads of people dancing around in tacky clothes and songs w/ english verses in them. I am pretty sick of regular bollywood films, but actually enjoyed this one just b/c of the change. How did you guys feel about it?

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I totally and utterly disagree with you. Ash has not been able to match Rekha in this movie. I am an Ash fan and was expecting a wonderful movie and more so, the Mujrah as I am a great admirer of Ash's dancing skills.

I watched the movie a few days ago and am horror-struck by the quality of the Mujrah dances in the movie. Should we blame the choreographer or the dancer - Ash ?

When we got back home, my wife insisted that we play a DVD containing songs from the old Umrao Jaan. Comparing it, we discovered that we were not wrong.

Mujrah places a lot on Lachak, Machak and Ada/ Nakhra. If you watch Madhuri Dixit in the song "Yeh kis ne haraah rang daala", you will notice the Ada/ Nakhraa, the stabbing of the ground with the fist, the dropping back of the head, the twirl of the eyes, the flickering of the eyes, the dismissal of a thought with flapping of the hand; the list goes on.

In old Umrao Jaan, Rekha displayed similar Ada which is completely absent in the new Umrao Jaan.

As for Lachak, if you view the smart body twirls with rhythm of the tabla music of Madhuri in "Yeh kis ne haraah rang daala" you will see the Lachak. Rekha did a similar (though less Lachakful) Mujrah in the old Umrao Jaan.

The scene of the Mujrah in Faizabad was something I waited for desperately. It falls way short of the "Yeh kya jagah hai doston" in the old Umrao Jaan and the new Umrao Jaan's fate was sealed.

Ash, oh meri Ash, "Yeh too ney kya kar daala ?"

By Mujrah-Aashiq
Mujrah DVDs are my drinking partners when I travel overseas which is a lot)

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one: she wasnt the choreographer so dont blame the lack of grace in the dancing because aishwarya is known to be a graceful classical dancer.

two: the movie wasnt supposed to be the same. it just wasnt.

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first of all mujras are only of adas and not so called lataks and jhataks they r too cheap to relate with an ethnic mujra.

i agree choregraphy was not good, but it was not that bad too, vaibhavi used lots of mudras and tukdas and lots of hand movements and ash did them gracefully.

as far as performance is concerned, ash has given her best performance till date, yeah rekha was at epitome but ash was also grt.

film was bad, too long, too mnay songs, long scenes between ash and abhi.

but some scenes were wonderfull.

ash and shabana were saving grace of this movie, i wished jp dutta had taken some other lyricist and musician and also screenplay should have been reworked, thescenes of chold ameeran were pretty blands, there were no award worthy scenes.

even ash's final meeting with her parents were not soul touching , main problem in screenplay and dialogues.

ash was best in the movie.

and she should win all best actress award this yr.

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Well Mr. Singh, all I was saying was that this film was a nice CHANGE from the usual bollywood film - in terms of it's lack of modernity. God knows they could have made it worse with horrid dance sequences and *beep* like that (we all know, and if we don't, we should know that remakes sometimes have the potential to be disastrous). I was NOT saying that this film was in any way better or worse than the old Umrao Jaan, nor have I expressed any such opinions. I just wanted to set that straight here.

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Mr. Cematthew, as much as I respect your opinion, I would have to disagree. This UMRAO JAAN was still a pretty conventional movie to me, in the sense that it has the same kind of lyrics, a very melodramatic ending and a conventional portrayal of the love between Umrao and Nawab Sultan.

But based on what you said about the film, I would like to recommend DOR to you. :) It has that "lack of modernity" too, shows some real places of India which are not often seen, has a moving story and powerful performances, great music and I thinks it's the best Hindi film of 2006.

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Second you on that one Puttarjee ... Dor was awesome... best this year.. in all respects..

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That's very interesting Anwar and I thank you for the Dor recommendation, I will definitely have to look into that!

I guess I still feel like Umrao is unconventional just because when I think of modern Bollywood movies, films such as Salaam Namaste, KHNH and K3G run through my head which seem in a different stratosphere compared to umrao. Not to say that Umrao is better or worse; it just seems so different. I guess I would attribute that to Umrao being a period film. Also, I thought the ending was very un-bollywood esque, haha, since Nawab did not end up with Umrao (you don't really see endings like that these days in bollywood). Then again, that is how the story (an older one) was written, right?

Agains, thanks for the Dor recommendation. Oh yes, one more thing, it's MS. cematthew, haha, thanks! =)

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I am so sorry, MS cematthew! :) And you are most welcome.

I understand it completely, based on the films you've seen earlier. Those are all YRF-produced or distributed movies (and that's probably the reason it is more well-known). But there are so many good Indian movies, which are truly Indian, which get overlooked by these "big-budget Hindi song-and-dance melodrama's". :)

May I recommend you some other recent movies that you might like? Those are:

- Parineeta (a period movie, set in 1962 Calcutta)
- Paheli (a fairy tale, set in Rajasthan)
- Iqbal
- Swades
- Maqbool (based on Shakespeare's Maqbeth)
- Raincoat
- Meenaxi
- Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon
- Devdas (grand love story, highly dramatic but enjoyable)
- Lagaan (period movie, set in the 19th century)
- Zubeidaa
- Monsoon Wedding (a personal favorite)
- Dil Se

These are the more "unconventional" movies, and shows India and its culture in a more accurate way than the well-known big-budget movies.

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Hey Anwar, how are you??

I have seen a handful of the films you recommend here on your list. The strange this is I did not like Paheli, Swades, Devdas, or Lagaan very much. Except in Paheli I liked the costumes and things. However, I did love Monsoon Wedding, a great film! Perhaps if I check out some more of them, I'll find better luck haha!

Thanks again! =)

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hey i didn't like paheli, swades and i hated devdas but the rest of the movies are pretty (in fact really) good :).

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IA with the OP here. I liked it, it wasn't superb but it was good enough. Its refreshing to watch a different type of movie, not the typical crap being put out every month with the same 4 actors. It evoked a lot of emotion.

Paheli and Parineeta rocked! Def see those!

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