Begum Jaan -Film Review

Disclaimer-I am rather fond of Vidya Balan, so this could be a tad biased.

There are a lot of good things in the film, like its attempts to give each character in Begum Jaan's establishment a unique identity and character. That is not easy to do, considering it is an establishment of ill-repute, and the ladies (and  a couple of gents) don't get to go out of the house much. But we do sympathise or empathise with most of the characters.

The story-telling sessions by the old lady in the house are used brilliantly to weave in tales of heroism by Indian women in the face of extreme adversity- Padmavati, Rani Laxmibai and so on. There is also comic relief in the form of the inspector and the man of the house imitating various inmates.

The fiery character of Begum Jaan is well played by Vidya Balan. The two other main characters of Rajat Kapoor and Ashish Vidyarthi are OK, a bit predictable given the story. The biggest contribution of the film though is its indictment of humanity for its merciless, callous treatment of fellow humans, in this case brought about by colonisers and their decision to partition India. But what about the other people who pushed for it or were a party to it?

Cinematically, not a great film to watch, but it's got its good points-Vidya and the ladies being one of them. Naseeruddin Shah is so-so in his guest appearance.

Parallel Governments, Judiciary, et al

That we don't as a nation have much respect for the rule of law is quite well-known. Violation of traffic rules is a small symptom, though wide-spread. Lawless behaviour extends into other areas too, sometimes life-threatening (honour killings, for example).

But what keeps happening with regularity is violence based on some excuse-any excuse at all- where all sanity seems non-existent, and mobs rule our roads. I have seen too many such instances over the years, though personally the most chilling was the 1984 riots in Delhi, because I lived there at the time. Right from the ones at the time of our independence (partition, Bengal etc.) til date, we have not been able to control the urge to settle arguments on the road. It's similar to the need that the U.S. and a few others seem to have, to go bomb someone somewhere when the urge becomes uncontrollable. The excuse does not really matter.

This urge for violence towards a fellow human (sometimes family, as in honour killings), is a worrisome thing, and can be easily exploited by interested parties to keep us fighting with eachj other.. The sooner we learn to control ourselves, the better it will be- for ALL of us. Hoping sanity prevails in Bangalore, Chennai, and elsewhere.