As for Vidya Balan, after starring in films like The Dirty Picture, Bhool Bhulaiya and Kahaani, she proved that she is worth the National Awards that she won. Hence, everyone expected the best performance of hers, when news emerged as Srijit Mukherji was willing to cast her as the Begum Jaan of Bollywood…
The trailer of Begum Jaan was released recently making the viewers revive the memory of the Bengali film, Rajkahini, starring Rituparna Sengupta. Although some people view it as juxtaposing the Bengal actors with the Bollywood stars, the others saw it as the most bone-chilling of the movie with Vidya Balan.
Begum Jaan has an impressive ensemble cast from, Vidya Balan, Naseeruddin Shah, Vivek Mushran, Ashish Vidyarthi, Rajit Kapur, Chunky Pandey and Ila Arun to Gauahar Khan and Pallavi Sharda.
While all actors look stunning in their roles, including Vidya Balan, as smoking hookah owning as the bold owner of a brothel in the time of drama, Chunkey Pandey looks strikingly different.
During the era of partition when India and Pakistan are drawing their borders, the
trailer begins with Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan’s voice-over explaining the premise and ground of the film.
Unfortunately or call it by fate, Vidya’s brothel falls right at the border and is to be divided in such a way that half of it falls in India and the other half in Pakistan. Other people living are then warned by the administrators to leave the premises, but since they refuse, it leads to tragic and violent results. Thus, Balan is seen both as laying back and confident while sipping hookah along with being vulnerable and fierce while fighting tooth and nail against the authorities. Begum Jaan shifts its place from West Bengal to Punjab. And thus, the characters are Punjabi, rather than Bengali, but the aura and the milieu at the end remain the same.
“This movie will bring renewed focus on the sex workers community”, said Mukherji. And furthermore, he refuted the reports which said Vidya interacted with sex workers and told that it was when he was making a film called Baishe Shrabon he learned about the lives of such people and thus got in touch with them while making of Begum Jaan.
Begum Jaan shifts its place from West Bengal to Punjab. And thus, the characters are Punjabi, rather than Bengali, but the aura and the milieu at the end remain the same.
The trailer for sure promises a lot of action and drama along with some terrifyingly charged moments, structured around our Begum, Vidya Balan. But the question that seems to wriggle on every other man’s mind is that, Is Vidya Balan trying to go one-up Rituparna Sengupta’s original performance? Well, it’s just the trailer now.
So to look for the answer, Watch the trailer and then wait until 14th April 2017, to decide who’s better. Begum Jaan produced by Mahesh and Mukesh Bhatt’s Vishesh Films, scheduled to release on 14th April 2017.
