Umrao Jaan (2006) 
 
Year: 2006
Label: T - SERIES
Genre: Drama,Musical
Director: J.P. Dutta
Music Director: Anu Malik
Leading Cast: Aishwarya Rai, Abhishek Bachchan, Shabana Azmi, Sunil Shetty, Arshad Warsi, Divya Dutta
 

The flurry of remakes of a number of movies including Don, Sholay and Umrao Jaan have generated a lot of interest, speculation and curiosity.

 The original Umrao Jaan starring the elegant Rekha had phenomenal music by Khayyam, with Asha Bhonsle as the voice of Umrao Jaan. The movie directed by Muzaffar Ali and the songs are still vivid in one’s memory for the sheer classiness of Rekha’s performance, which won her the national award and the excellent music.

 J P Dutta’s version releasing shortly stars the glorious Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan puts Anu Malik in the spotlight. He is not the name one would associate with ghazals and semiclassical numbers and curiosity was very high to see how the music would match up to its worthy predecessor. Javed Akhtar has composed the lyrics.

 After listening to the album, I have to say that Anu Malik has surprised with an excellent score and a good command of the musical ambience of the era of nawabs and courtesans. Alka Yagnik is the voice of Umrao Jaan in this version and she sings with ease and grace with perfect diction of the beautiful words of Javed Akhtar.

 The song” Salaam” is a crowning achievement as it is a perfect song. The voice, music, words, intonation leaves nothing to be desired. Lovely!

Alkaji plaintively sings “Main na mil sakoon jo tumse” and she scores big navigating through the emotional twists of the song.

“ Behka diya hamein”, the only duet in the album features Alka and Sonu Nigam. Again, a very melodious romantic duet with the dulcet voice of Sonu perfectly creating the mood of a newfound love.

The song “ Jhoote Ilzam” has excellent orchestration and describes the anguish of a woman who cannot fulfill her love. The lyrics of this number are exquisite!! Gets better with every listen.

“ Pehle Pehel” and “Ek toote hue dil ki” are nice songs but doesn’t hold a candle to the others.

Richa Sharma makes a powerful appearance in the song “ Agle Janam mohe bitiya”. The lyrics are superb and the plight of a woman requesting God not to reincarnate her as a girl is heart-rending. The helplessness of the woman along with her anger against her circumstances is very well captured.
This is an excellent album; Anu Malik’s effort has produced a true work of art. It cannot be compared to the original Umrao jaan score but can hold its head high. Excellent job by all concerned!

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