Umrao Jaan sequel in the making?

Director and scriptwriter of the Rekha-starrer film is keen to work on part two.

KARACHI:

It is either because film-makers are running out of ideas or they see immense potential in their classics, whatever the reason may be, the obsession with remakes and sequels has taken over Bollywood.

After the remake of Agneepath and sequels to films like Don comes yet another probable sequel — this time around the classic Umrao Jaan.

The 1981 Bollywood film, directed by Muzaffar Ali, was based on the Urdu novel Umrao Jaan Ada written by Mirza Hadi Ruswa. The film, which focused on a famous Lucknow courtesan, starred veteran actor Rekha and Farooq Sheikh in the lead roles. Rekha’s performance as the central character in the film had won her first National Award. After three decades of its original release, Umrao Jaan still holds a cult following and that is largely because of some evergreen songs like “In Aankhon Ki Masti Ke” and “Dil Cheez Kya Hai” composed by the well known composer Khayyam.

According to the latest buzz, Ali and Javed Siddiqui, one of the writers of the original film, are contemplating making a sequel. “We have two story ideas that we are currently working on. One has nothing to do with Umrao Jaan. It’s a story is set in the same period; it is set in the aftermath of the first freedom struggle. The other idea is to have a sequel to Umrao Jaan,” Siddiqui was quoted as saying in an article published in Times of India yesterday.

“In the end we have shown that she (Rekha) comes to her kotha and we haven’t shown what is going to happen to her in the English regime, how she behaves etc. So we have a story in which we have Umrao Jaan as an older and more mature person. But we’re still not sure if we’ll follow through with the plan or not,” he said.

He further added; “We have started working on both the scripts. Both the options are good. I think the final decision will be made in a few days.”

Failed attempt

In 2006, JP Dutta tried his hands at a remake the Muzaffar Ali classic. The film turned out to be a commercial failure, receiving a lot of flak from the critics as well.

The film starred Abhishek Bachchan and Aiswariya Rai-Bachchan in the epic roles of Nawab Sultan and Umrao Jaan while an interesting mix of actors like Shabana Azmi, Sunil Shetty, Divya Dutta, Himani Shivpuri and Kulbhushan Kharbanda featured in side roles. The script of the film was written by JP Dutta’s father OP Dutta.

Both Abhishek and Aishwarya were heavily criticised for not infusing any spirit to such classic characters and the director was criticised for relying too much on Aishwariya’s beauty rather than utilising her as an actor. However, the music of the film (composed by Anu Malik) and the lyrics (Javed Akhtar) received a warm response and ghazals like “Salaam” became an instant hit.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 1^st, 2012.