BEGAM JAAN, as good as the foreplay in a brothel
Sir Cyril Radcliff drew the line that divided India and many lives. How was he to know that the line would pass through a Kotha (brothel) at the new border? The government officials have the task cut out before them. The kotha must make way for the barbedwire fence to define the boundaries of new nations. No point is guessing that one of the Government representatives is Hindu (Ashish Vidyarthi) and the other, a Muslim (Rajit Kapoor) and their friendship is also threatened under partition. No marks for outguessing the director that Begam Jaan (Vidya Balan) will fight for her right to keep the brothel intact… at any cost. I understand ‘Begam Jaan’ is Hindi remake of Director Srijit Mukherji’s Bengali film Rajkahini, which borrowed its opening shot from a very powerful story by Sadat Hasan Manto. The opening shot played on the acquired reflex response of a girl who has been raped and tortured for days and left outside the refugee camp. In the camp makeshift hospital when the doctor tells someone ‘KHOL DO’ ( open up), asking to open the window for more light, the young lady on the bed unties her salwar (lower garment). Rajkahini featured a group of men and women living in a house right in the middle of East Pakistan and West Bengal. For Begam Jaan, the GPRS coordinates changed. It now was centred on a brothel situated in the western India. It seemed a simple shift. However, it failed to live up to the promise unleashed by the trailers. Begam Jaan, is an out and out a VIDYA BALAN film. As Begam Jaan, the madam of the brothel, Vidhya tries her level best to infuse some charisma in the character but fails. There are moments when she creates viewer interest. The Vidhya Balan act does remind you a bit of Mandi but similarities are blurred. Vidhya rules her Kotha and runs it by her rules. She has an arrangement of convenience with Raja (the King played by Naseeruddin Shah). Every new girl, ready or not for the business , must first be presented to the king for his pleasure. The king has a problem; he can only perform the act, when Begam Jaan plays the saaz (music instrument) sitting in the same room. Begam Jaan is crooked, street smart, authoritarian and protective of her herd. She is a sharp woman who had her share of woes and exploitation before she established her brothel. She is a hell of a woman, who derives her power from the patronage extended by the king. It in fact, sets her into a falsehood of confidence. She believes Raja will always be able to protect her, and she will not have to leave her Kotha. However, it is not to be so. Begam Jaan has a story, so does every girl who is in the brothel. Begam Jaan and the bevy of girls are highly stereotyped. This typecasting extends beyond to her customers and social custodian, including the Daroga (the police in command). Her brothel is a perfect example of complex Indian culture and national integration. It has more diverse representation than the Indian Women Hockey team of Chak-de-India. We have representation by caste, religion and geographies. Each of then tries to cover up the contrived faked feeling in diction, direction and delivery. The need to give every girl a story, defining their past and present and to weave it into a story that would ultimately culminate with a set of whores defending their kotha, overloaded the director and the viewer. It has so much of foreplay that climax is non-orgasmic. The parallel stories between Gauahar Khan and Pitobash or Pallavi Sharda and Vivek Mushran are somewhat interesting for their emotive content and the twist they unveil later. Do not miss Chunky Pandey; the actor surprises you at multiple levels. I liked his small role as the criminal who is helping the government representatives to evict the whores from the brothel. The end of the movie is unnecessarily overplayed. Unfortunately, the director drags it. The layering it with narration of johar (immolating self instead of allowing to be captured by the enemy) seems far fetches in the situation. God, no Karni Sena made an issue out of it. There is no orgasmic climax. The service manual of whores in the kotha does not speak about it and the viewers don’t get the cinematic equivalent in the theatre. I know I am stretching the argument, but that’s Begam Jaan effect. It not an excellent film. It is neither a good nor a worst film. It is just a film that fails to connect. It does keep you engaged, to a certain extent, due to the situation, raunchy dialogues, few brilliance of acting and the women who have tried to deliver their best. I watched it on Sunday afternoon, and the hall was not even half full. A bad sign. And the word of mouth is definitely not helping the film. . As the last word, I would have avoided Begam Jaan, if only “Anarkali of Arrah’ had a show in near by theatre. STAR: Vidya Balan, Gauahar Khan, Pitobash Tripathy, Pallavi Sharda, Ila Arun, Naseeruddin Shah, Ashish Vidyarthi, Rajit Kapoor and Chunky Pandey. DIRECTOR: Srijit Mukherji BLOG/ 32/2017/06/movie
