Umrao Jaan (1981 & 2006): A Courtesan's Tale...Times Two

Well, this was a Bollywood first for me: I've seen two versions of a film and am able to do a comparison. The 1981 and 2006 versions of Umrao Jaan! Forgive any spottiness in this post as I watched the 2006 remake in September and the 1981 version about three weeks ago with spotty subtitles.

If you don't already know… The films are based on a 1899 Urdu novel (often considered the first Urdu novel) called "Umrao Jan Ada" (امراؤ جان ادا) by Mirza Hadi Ruswa, and there is some dispute about whether an actual courtesan named Umrao Jaan existed (as Ruswa claimed). In the story, Amiran is from a modest family in Faizabad, and an enemy of her father captures her and sells her into prostitution at a Lucknow brothel in 1840. Renamed Umrao, she grows up to become a charming courtesan, and she steals the heart of Nawab Sultan, with whom she falls in love (earning her the "Jaan" in her name). But the match is obviously not an approved one and Sultan marries to please his family instead. After a sort of mishap with another would-be suitor who turns out to be a bandit, Umrao returns to Lucknow but finds it under attack by the British and flees. She attempts to return home but her family rejects her, so she goes back to the now-looted Lucknow brothel with only her poetry and courtesan's arts. Rekha plays Umrao in the original 1981 film, and Aishwarya Rai plays her in the 2006 film; Farooq Sheikh plays Sultan in 1981, and Abhishek Bachchan plays him in 2006. (Also interestingly but not necessarily importantly, Shabana Azmi plays the role of brothel owner Khannum Jaan in the 2006 film after her mother, Shaukat Azmi, played the same role in the 1981 version.)

What is (hopefully) upcoming here

The blogosphere (or at least the corner of it that I watch) seems to have been quite quiet lately, including, I know, my particular corner. However, coming soon I hope to have a retrospect look at my favorite (and least favorite?) films of 2011. I also want to talk briefly about some of the several Indian films I watched in my downtime before graduation, including Omkara, Tere Naam, Umrao Jaan (x2), Bombay (1995), Pyaasa, Rangeela and Bobby, and an...entertaining book about Indian film that I happened across. There are also a couple of films that I saw before that I still want to write up posts about, including Chalte Chalte (thought I don't remember why that one at the moment) and Dil Chahta Hai (because it has a particular resonance with my life right now!).

Hope all is well with you readers and that those of you who watch cricket as well are enjoying this back-and-forth India-Australia Test as much as I am.

NEW: Don 2: the Slick, Cool and Action-Packed Return of the King

I think Bollywood saved the best for last this year.

If we could have skipped all of the Ra.One buildup and gone straight to Don 2, I would have been happy. Although, as you know, I didn't hate Ra.One as much as most people seemed to, Don 2 is all that it promises and more (including some of what Ra.One promised!).

There are sexy foreign locales (from Thailand to Switzerland to Germany), hot women (Piggy Chops and Lara Dutta), flashy cars (lots of Hyundais), car chases through great locations, spectacular stunts (base jumping from buildings, anyone?) and explosions and guns a-plenty. And, of course, tons and tons of SRK acting like a total badass. And then the plot has drugs, bank robberies, jail breaks and assassination plots — all major action plots in one.

And Don 2, I thought, did all of these things even better than the first film. If Ra.One was shooting for Hollywood's level, Don 2 reached it. It's so cool it's ridiculous. It's slick, glitzy and so action-packed you never have a down moment. The stunts and special effects really are Hollywood caliber. And the camerawork (which film classes have taught me to notice) is really brilliant, including the quick cuts and slow-pans.

Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham revisited: a Bollywood anniversary

Well, the time around Thanksgiving was not just a holiday for me. It also marked my one-year anniversary with Bollywood. Sometime around Thanksgiving (or a little after) last year, I watched my first Bollywood film, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, with my then-roommate.

I was reluctant to watch it, actually, because of the subtitles. But little did I know what would result! I fell in love with K3G almost immediately (almost meaning after that confusing opening scene that I still don't love) and that was the launching pad to my Bollywood obsession.

Well, on the occasion of my Bollywood anniversary, I wanted to do a list of the 120+ films I've seen in the year since then, but I lost my list somewhere and most of my viewing history was wiped out when I canceled my Netflix account a few months ago. So instead I only get to do the other thing I wanted to: an assessment of how far I've come in that year. Aka watching K3G again and thinking back to the first time I watched it (or even the first three times I watched it within a two-week span because I was introducing it to other people).

I realize now that watching Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham — whose title I couldn't even remember or pronounce — there were so many things I straight-up didn’t understand. Some of them you think I would with my literary background that has a definite lean toward India and colonialism. But, nope, I was clueless.