UMRAO JAAN-BROKEN HEART TO ART
Umrao Jaan by Muzhaffar Ali
The movie Umrao Jaan is set in the city of Lucknow in the 19th century. The very setting of the movie suggests the mood of the narrative. The 19th century was the peak of art forms portrayed in the movie and Lucknow is known as the “city of nawabs”. The story portrays the taste and preference for ghazals and dance performances.
The female protagonist in the story has a lot of connotations. She is portrayed as a woman who is very polite and respectful. Her lower gaze while talking to someone especially to men is a textual sign of that. Throughout the film, she is shown as a performer for pleasure. Point out the convention of how women are looked at and displayed as an object of pleasure for men.
The Fashion and the apparels convey how women during that era adorned themselves only for men, as when Umrao goes to meet Nawab at his place she dresses herself up.
All the ghazals and songs she performance have a very deep meaning attached to them and are indexical of her own thoughts and feelings. She is not seen confessing about herself or her past even when asked about rather keeps all of it to herself. She converts her sadness into art.
A person like her who was a singer/performer who sold her body was frowned upon by society. She wasn’t included in the category of “good women”. She faced constant insults and in the entire plot didn’t even received what she desired and met a tragic end instead.
Another convention of the society is showed when Nawab denied coming to her place — “Kotha” and his father didn’t want his son to know that he used to visit there hence it wasn’t considered decent for “good men” or men that belonged to “upper society” to go to such a place.
Throughout the movie, we see how men considered that women were entitled to please them. It was the notion of the society where men could ask women to please her whenever they wished. A woman’s willingness wasn’t considered important. They just demanded what they wanted and considered it right. We see that how egoistic was for Nawab when the man didn’t obey him, and nawab straight away shot him. His death is not even frowned upon neither by the characters nor the audience and he is depicted as an “Evil character” who deserved that.
The concept of Beauty as depicted in the film is controversial to me. Umrao Jaan’s beauty is what is celebrated the most in the film. It was her ghazal’s and the beauty that attracted so many men to her. Beauty was her only confidence. In spite of her beauty, she is forbidden from love. Nawab denies marrying her because of his family and his husband is killed soon as she marries him.
The songs in the film depict how in Bollywood films women are considered as an object dressed and adorned to perform around mento please their male gratifications. This has been seen as a common norm in Bollywood movies which makes the pictures sell.
Umrao Jaan is depicted as someone who has only her beauty and her art and she is incapable of doing anything for herself or about her past. She is given a “new name”. Fromm Amiran to Umrao Jaan, which is symbolic of how she was expected to forget her past as she entered her new life as a courtesan.
Nawab Sultan fell in love with her because of her beauty and her art. Her ghazals are what brings him back. This shows what kind of impact such performances had on men during that era and on the contrary, he refuses to marry her because it wasn’t pleasing to her family.
Even when she returns to her hometown in the later part of the story, nobody recognizes her and she is asked to perform for their pleasure. As if it was emphasizing the fact that her past was all gone with no connections attached. Her own mother doesn’t accept her after recognizing her. She is shown as someone who is very helpless about what happens with her. She has gone through a lot but keeps it to herself and meets an end. Her broken heart is transformed into art, the ART which is celebrated throughout the movie.
