As I talk about the iconic effect of one of the most heart wrenching tales of all times, it is important to note that the idea of melancholy gets prime focus.
In our enlightened times, it is no longer taboo to talk about sadness or the compass of pain which stays at the very nucleus of our livelihoods and existential dilemmas. Sadness is the root of the half a century tree which symbolizes our further movement in terms of age and experience. The sheer scope of the human experience is captured in Umrao Jaan, one of the first proper novels written in the elegant prose of Urdu language by Mirza Hadi Ruswa. Its 1981 film version succeeded in fluently capturing the life and times of an artist/courtesan of the 19th century, immortalized by evergreen screen paragon Rekha. In this essay, the songs of the film version trace her self- expression and the humanism of a contradictory world.
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Umrao Jaan was a real-life figure who rose as a consummate poet and artist within the region called Awadh known for its impeccable taste in art, culture and refined aristocracy. My city Lucknow is still the epicenter and this is where Umrao's legend has been etched since generations. However, the big screen adaptation by Muzaffar Ali, a famed custodian of the region's emblematic cultural highpoint, helped to convey the pathos of a woman abducted as a young girl who went by the name of Ameeran( the rich / prosperous one), daughter of an orderly from Faizabad. Her induction into the cultural capital of the era and the rise and fall of fortunes is all about how in a man's world, destinies of women are negotiated and they end up having no share or say in who they are. Fame and infamy are the two strident pillars of Umrao's life and in its universality is striking. The position of a courtesan is a highly contested one throughout the world. The singing and dancing poise of these bona-fide artists are slandered in the fact that they were women who also contributed to the flesh trade. The irony is that while culturally they were poets and artistic flag bearers and helped in teaching ways of refinement to the aristocracy, the ways of history also equates them with fallen women. I am no historian and so I ask you to read and study about this opposing strand attributed to the enigma of courtesans (geishas in Japan too have the same appropriation sometimes).
For me, Umrao Jaan's a figure trapped in the multiple whirlpools of hypocrisy, love, loss, identity crises, the weight and burden of renown and fall from grace, all defined by the larger world. As I saw the film, I knew her purity of the heart and soul was as majestic as her music and though no photographs of her remain today, her manifesto of artistic intent remains at the heart of my city and culture. It's a healthy sign of acknowledgement regarding parallel strands of our past and their examination in the present. The Ameeran (rich one) of a humble household became Umrao (Queen) Jaan (beloved) and her haunting imprints are in the musical score by Khayyam and lyrics by Sharyaar. Here, I trace the idea behind its iconic songcraft and the emotional terrain attached with it.
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1) IN AANKHON KI MASTI KE( The playfulness of these eyes)--- Tipping its charmed hat to the time-honoured beauty of classical mold of composition, playback queen Asha Bhonsle( sister of another legend Lata Mangeshkar) marked her prime by articulating the various moods and textures of this tale. The Saarangi, an instrument that can take you to the sublime innards of the mind and its poignancies, is used here and it only registers the impact of the film more.
There's just something personal and intimate about it and no wonder it's used in background scores to highlight an individual in distress or emotional flux. Something spiritual pervades in its strains. So it is in this song. This song celebrates Umrao's power of conveying the poetic and romantic without pandering to explicit metaphors or similitudes. That is why I urge my readers to watch this film to get a better idea of its nuances, footwork of the pioneering Kathak dance form, expressions and the delivery of a certain coquetry at the heart of a courtesan's life. But really, it has to be emphasized that the moral fixity of a profession does not bear itself here. It is the artist as a commanding music maker and miracle worker whose voice has to navigate the expectations of her acolytes and patrons and be unabashed yet restrained at the same time about her object of affection Nawab Sultan( the unassuming legend, the late Farooque Sheikh).
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