Umrao Jaan

A City Gate in Lucknow

 Reviewing Umrao Jaan (1981), like Sholay (1975) or Mughal-e-Azim (1960) feels a bit like reviewing Citizen Cane (1941), but it is too good to not write about. What follows is a review of the 1981 film, not the critically blasted 2006 re-make.

The Story

Umrao Jaan Ada, considered by some the first Urdu-language novel, was written by Mirza Hadi Ruswa and published in 1899. The eponymous Umrao Jaan Ada is a tawaiff (courtesan) in Lucknow in the years leading up to 1857, variously called the Sepoy Rebellion and the First War of Independence (please see Mangal Pandey: The Rising). In addition to providing commentary on the hypocrisy of a society which professes devotion to a tawaiff which means nothing but heartache and social rejection for the object of devotion, Umrao stands in for India herself, as men step up with promises of love which are nothing more than exploitation. Umrao Jaan, like other tawaiff, occupies a liminal, ambiguous space between the sought-after and the disposable, neither and both.

In 1981 Rekha's portrayal of Umrao Jaan won her a well-deserved National Film Award for Best Actress. As in 2006, when Aishwarya Rai Bachchan portrayed Umrao Jaan, one of the most beautiful women of her day was chosen for the titular role; as the doomed courtesan, object of so many men's desire, Rekha is radiant, resilient, and vulnerable.

She is also self-sacrificing, as is required of sex-worker heroines. Umrao gives up the nawab, the love of her life, so that he may be married according to his mother's wishes. She reminds him that his mother has a far greater right to him. She is kind to her friend Gohar Mirza, portrayed by a young and rakish Naseeruddin Shah, even though he is not necessarily a good friend to her. She is loyal to her Ustaad (teacher) Khan, and to the madam in charge of the kotha, Khanum Jaan.

Her Ustaad tells her, "you are not a thing of this kothay, the whole world belongs to you." As a tawaiff, this is cruelly untrue. 

Ruins of the Residency in Lucknow

The Setting 

Our story takes place in Lucknow, the city where I studied with the American Institute of Indian Studies. Umrao Jaan is melancholy on several levels- most obviously, Umrao Jaan is doomed by her profession to a lonely life as a public woman. Adored by all men, she is known only to a few, and can lay claim to none. The other, opposing melancholy of the film lies in the ending of her world with the uprising of 1857. While in Lucknow I was often struck by the sense of living in a post-1857 world, a sense I had nowhere else in India. Whereas (New) Delhi looks back to 1947 and Partition or forward to a flashier, more powerful future, Lucknow seemed to me to look back to earlier, more elegant and prosperous times; Urdu as a language and linguistic identity, with its emphasis on purity of vocabulary and pronunciation, courtly manners, and literary traditions, seemed a language and culture more concerned with the past than with the future, the continued use of Urdu in cinema, and especially film music, notwithstanding. In Lucknow the relics of a pre-1857 world were everywhere, from the crumbling city walls to the ruins of the Residency, a focal point of violence and site of much bloodshed. If Delhi is a city of "what if..." then Lucknow felt like a city of "if only...".

A complete aside for people who may have missed the Lucknow reference on Downton Abbey- when the Dowager Countess is encouraging Lady Sybil (forever in our hearts) to pursue nursing, she references an aunt who also defied expectations by "manning the guns" in Lucknow. She meant this Lucknow and the events of 1857. Another queasy colonial moment from Downton.   

The Costuming 

The costuming of the film consistently makes best-of lists, for good reason- it is exquisite. Umrao wears a variety of different styles which draw primarily on Persian and other Central Asian traditions. The wide sashes holding jeweled sabers worn by men epitomize a dichotomous world of elegance and brutality. Silk, crepe, organza, airy cottons and exquisite brocades evoke the sumptuous moment that was late-Mughal Lucknow about to go up in a rain of cannon blasts and a puff of gunpowder smoke.

It is also worth noting that the idea that India has no history- in the sense that things are the way they have been for hundreds of years- is an orientalist/colonialist construct which has stuck, particularly when it comes to women's fashion. This is spite of the fact that a wide range of clothing has been worn for generations. Vogue India's photo slideshows are always fun and gorgeous, and showcase this blending of styles and cutting-edge designs.

Aside- while in Tbilisi with my baby sister we noticed a woman of East Asian decent wearing a gorgeous turquoise shalwar khamez. Baby sister noted that the Soviets moved their Korean population away from the border to North Korea to Uzbekistan, where women evidently adopted the eminently practical outfits. 

For a beautifully written series of translations of the best songs from the film, including "Yeh Kya Jagah Hai Doston", "Dil Chiiz Kyaa Hai?", and “Justajuu Jiski Thii” please see the charming blog Mr. and Mrs. 55. Both songs are sung by the ever-green Asha Bhosle, whose music is widely available. 

For an interesting reflection on music in the final years of the Awadhi court, I recommend this fascinating interview with one of the last performers in Lucknow's court. A new website created by Indian industrialist Sanjiv Saraf, Rekhta.org is a tremendous resource for video and sound recordings of Urdu poetry.

To the dancing!

Rekha as Umrao Jaan performs a style of dance known as kathak. Rekha was not a professionally-trained kathak dancer, and can be forgiven for not being very good. She is not very good.  Whatever you do, please do not take Umrao Jaan as a prime example of Indian classical dance. 

The Jewelry

Kundan jewelry

My host mother in Lucknow was from a land-owning family in Uttar Pradesh. She told stories, handed down to her from grandmothers, of great-grandmothers whose every need was attended to by servants, and who could be carried in palanquins for an entire day, always on land owned by their family. Some of the jewelry used in the film was owned by her family. The jewelry, specifically the jewelry with inlaid jewels and seed pearls, is called kundan. Jaipur is particularly known for its production of kundan jewelry, just as Hyderabad is known for pearl jewelry. The pendants worn by women down the parts in their hair and onto their foreheads are called tikka, the pendants worn along the side of a woman's hair is called a jhapta; Umrao Jaan wears both. 

A note on the red coloring on Rekha's hands- most of us are familiar with mhendi (usually marketed in the US under the Arabic word 'henna'). We have seen intricate designs of flowers, vines, birds, etc. Rekha wears what I was told is a more traditional pattern for Muslim North India, in which only her fingertips, fingernails, and circles in her palms are dyed. For notes about the mhendi Rekha wears please see my previous post "Bringing Bollywood Home". 

The Poetry 

One of the most iconic scenes of the film features the Nawab sitting in his carriage under the kothay's latticed window listening, enraptured, to Umrao Jaan's performance of her poetry. This is the closest we will ever get in film to a man falling in love with a woman for her soul sight-unseen.  

To the cultural notes!

When I first arrived in Delhi and saw red paan stains on sidewalks, roads, and outdoor walls, I was concerned that I had moved to the knifing capital of the world. I was hugely relieved to learn it was just spit. Paan is a mild stimulant comprised of a green paan leaf filled with sweet or savory morsels, breath freshening seeds, and a bit of this and that. Paan is addictive, kills hunger, and is widely consumed. It can also cause mouth cancer.  

Paan in Kolkata

Paan daan, special paan boxes, are presented to guests at the kotha so they can help themselves. As Southerby's discovered in 2013, there is quite a market for Mughal articles of beauty. No doubt the paan daan used in the film were similarly beautiful. 

For a fascinating discussion of colonial North India, before and after 1857, please see C.A. Bayly's Empire and Information:Intelligence Gathering and Social Communication in India, 1780-1870. It is not a perfect book, but it is certainly an interesting read, particularly for those interested in communication. For those interested in Umrao Jaan more broadly, Fran Pritchett's site for the University of Columbia is fantastic. The full text of Umrao Jaan Adda is available online. 

Film: Umrao Jaan (1981)
Director: Muzaffar Ali 

Writers: Shama Zaidi, Javed Siddiqui, Muzaffar Ali
Runtime: 145 minutes
Language: Hindi/Urdu 
Country: India