To start with, I had great hopes from Umrao Jaan. Coming from a trusted stable of JP Dutta, with big star cast in lead and a story that is all time classic, expectations were bound to be high.
But the film disappoints in almost all departments. The current generation of stars just cannot carry Urdu dialogs. No one in the cast was able to lend the required grandeur required for making an Urdu film. Suniel Shetty is almost comic. Only exception being Shabana Azmi, who stands out as the best performer. Probably the script and dialog writers knew this, as most of the film is filled with Hindi dialogs. Also one expects better work from O P Dutta, as not even a single dialog could leave a lasting impression.
Music is also a let down. Its hard to believe that even a maestro like Javed Akhtar could not capture the essence of the story, and came up with some really mediocre lyrics. Anu Malik tried hard but fell short of a good musical score.
As for performance, Aishwarya tries hard, looks good but her "Salaam" remains a far cry from Rekha's "Aankho Ki masti". Abhishek starts of well be struggles during later stages. The romantic scenes between Abhishek and Aishwarya are dragging and lack any chemistry.
The tweaks in the original scripts also don't work in film's favor.
The only saving grace of the film are direction of JP Dutta and performance of Shabana Azmi, but these two are not enough to make it a success, both commercial as well as critical.
But the film disappoints in almost all departments. The current generation of stars just cannot carry Urdu dialogs. No one in the cast was able to lend the required grandeur required for making an Urdu film. Suniel Shetty is almost comic. Only exception being Shabana Azmi, who stands out as the best performer. Probably the script and dialog writers knew this, as most of the film is filled with Hindi dialogs. Also one expects better work from O P Dutta, as not even a single dialog could leave a lasting impression.
Music is also a let down. Its hard to believe that even a maestro like Javed Akhtar could not capture the essence of the story, and came up with some really mediocre lyrics. Anu Malik tried hard but fell short of a good musical score.
As for performance, Aishwarya tries hard, looks good but her "Salaam" remains a far cry from Rekha's "Aankho Ki masti". Abhishek starts of well be struggles during later stages. The romantic scenes between Abhishek and Aishwarya are dragging and lack any chemistry.
The tweaks in the original scripts also don't work in film's favor.
The only saving grace of the film are direction of JP Dutta and performance of Shabana Azmi, but these two are not enough to make it a success, both commercial as well as critical.