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IMDbPro

Umrao Jaan

  • 19811981
  • 2h 25m
IMDb RATING
7.7/10
1.1K
YOUR RATING
Rekha in Umrao Jaan (1981)
  • Drama
  • Musical
  • Romance
In Faizabad, British India, Dilawar is sentenced to several years in prison after Amiran's Daroga dad testifies against him. After his discharge around 1840, he extracts his vengeance by abd... Read allIn Faizabad, British India, Dilawar is sentenced to several years in prison after Amiran's Daroga dad testifies against him. After his discharge around 1840, he extracts his vengeance by abducting Amiran and selling to a brothel madam. It is here Amiran will be re-named Umrao Jaa... Read allIn Faizabad, British India, Dilawar is sentenced to several years in prison after Amiran's Daroga dad testifies against him. After his discharge around 1840, he extracts his vengeance by abducting Amiran and selling to a brothel madam. It is here Amiran will be re-named Umrao Jaan. Years later, Umrao has grown up and is an accomplished poetess as well as dancer extrao... Read all
IMDb RATING
7.7/10
1.1K
YOUR RATING
  • Director
    • Muzaffar Ali
  • Writers
    • Mirza Muhammad Hadi Ruswa(novel)
    • Shama Zaidi(screenplay and dialogue)
    • Javed Siddiqui(screenplay and dialogue)
  • Stars
    • Rekha
    • Farooq Shaikh
    • Naseeruddin Shah
Top credits
  • Director
    • Muzaffar Ali
  • Writers
    • Mirza Muhammad Hadi Ruswa(novel)
    • Shama Zaidi(screenplay and dialogue)
    • Javed Siddiqui(screenplay and dialogue)
  • Stars
    • Rekha
    • Farooq Shaikh
    • Naseeruddin Shah
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 14User reviews
    • 4Critic reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 6 wins & 1 nomination

    Photos

    Umrao Jaan (1981)
    Rekha in Umrao Jaan (1981)
    Rekha in Umrao Jaan (1981)
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    Top cast

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    Rekha
    Rekha
    • Amiran
    Farooq Shaikh
    Farooq Shaikh
    • Nawab Sultan
    • (as Farouque Shaikh)
    Naseeruddin Shah
    Naseeruddin Shah
    • Gohar Mirza
    Raj Babbar
    Raj Babbar
    • Faiz Ali
    Shaukat Azmi
    Shaukat Azmi
    • Khanum Jaan
    • (as Shaukat Kaifi)
    Ishtiaque Khan Ghilzai
      Prema Narayan
      Prema Narayan
      • Bismillah
      Akbar Rashid
      Gajanan Jagirdar
      Gajanan Jagirdar
      • Maulvi
      Dina Pathak
      Dina Pathak
      • Husseini
      Rita Rani Kaul
      • Ramdei
      Shaheen Sultan
      Umme Farwa
      • Young Amiran
      Seema Sathyu
      Farrukh Jaffar
      Farrukh Jaffar
      • Played Umrao Jaan's biological mother
      Bharat Bhushan
      Bharat Bhushan
      • Khan Saheb
      • (uncredited)
      Leela Mishra
      Leela Mishra
        Mukri
        Mukri
        • Parnan Aziz
        • (uncredited)
        • Director
          • Muzaffar Ali
        • Writers
          • Mirza Muhammad Hadi Ruswa(novel)
          • Shama Zaidi(screenplay and dialogue)
          • Javed Siddiqui(screenplay and dialogue)
        • All cast & crew
        • See more cast details at IMDbPro

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        Storyline

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        Did you know

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        • Trivia
          Rekha wore her own costumes and jewelry for the movie due to budget constraints. The success of Khubsoorat and Umrao Jaan established Rekha, with whom Amitabh had stopped signing movies, as the top heroine of the first half of 1980s. The mantle would be later taken over by Sridevi, in 1983.
        • Connections
          Featured in Congregation (1986)
        • Soundtracks
          Dil cheez kya hai aap meri jaan leejiye
          Lyrics by Shahryar

          Music by Khayyam

          Sung by Asha Bhosle

        User reviews14

        Review
        Top review
        9/10
        Unusually well-made Urdu film
        For many in India, this is a film famous for its haunting songs. To some, it was a film that brought an average, good-looking actress a dream role that fetched her a national best actress award.

        "Umrao Jaan" did not create ripples among most critics when it was made because the story line revolving around a singer/dancer who sells her body was old hat for most Hindi/Urdu film-goers.

        What made "Umrao Jaan" stand out? It was the director Muzaffar Ali's flash-in-the-pan directorial effort. His earlier film "Gaman" lends poor comparison to "Umrao Jaan." Ali was able to get superb performances from the ensemble of Bollywood actresses to whom subtlety is still a foreign concept. Rekha is quite restrained (wish she were more), so is Prema Narayan in this film. The effect is stunning. Some of the Indian actors could do so well, if only they were well directed!

        But good direction does not come merely in dealing with actors. Each and every shot of cameraman Pravin Bhatt could have been mistaken for the work of Sven Nykvist in the early Bergman movies. The composition of each frame, taking three objects in perspective (faces, chandeliers, minarets, etc..) and juggling with the one, two, or three objects for composition within the frame brought a maturity to Indian cinematography rarely seen. This is a film to be enjoyed by sight and sound--not merely at the level of the story. This is probably why twenty years after it was made the film attracts audiences as it did before. It has stood the test of time. It was unfortunate that Indian critics by and large grouped it with commercial cinema churned out from Mumbai merely because of its song and dance component and its all too familiar theme for Indian audiences.

        The screenplay was well written and mature in comparison to most Urdu/Hindi films. Melodrama was reigned in, yet music and song held sway. The melancholic thread in the film is developed right up to the dried leaves in the final scenes knitting together a very feminist tragedy by a male director. In many respects, this film was a major movie from India in the Eighties, on par with the efforts of some of the more notable directors like Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Adoor Gopalakrishnan.

        For Ali, this was his swansong--he never made a film that flashed his brilliance after this effort. Probably he knew he could not improve upon this effort....
        helpful•35
        6
        • JuguAbraham
        • Feb 24, 2002

        Details

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        • Release date
          • 1981 (India)
        • Country of origin
          • India
        • Language
          • Urdu
        • Also known as
          • Дорогая Умрао
        • Production companies
          • Integrated Films
          • S K Jain & Sons
        • See more company credits at IMDbPro

        Technical specs

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        • Runtime
          2 hours 25 minutes
        • Color
          • Color
        • Sound mix
          • Mono

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