Vidya Balan’s Begum Jaan is slated to release this weekend. The film, which has her playing the titular character talks about the 1947 Indo-Pakistan partition but in a sense that hasn’t really been explored in Hindi cinema. You talk of partition and there are many Bollywood films which have been made infusing a lot of overtly loud patriotism or jingoism. However, Begum Jaan shows the struggle of a group of women who are sex workers and the ones who completely refuse to surrender to a dividing line which passes through their house.
Apart from the strong performances by Vidya Balan, Gauahar Khan, Pallavi Sharda, Ila Arun, Mishti Chakraborty, Naseeruddin Shah and Chunkey Pandey among many others, Begum Jaan also has a strong reference to Rajputana queen Rani Padmini.
Directed by Srijit Mukherjee, the film is actually a Hindi remake of Bengali film Rajkahini, which was also written and directed by Mukherjee himself. In the film, Begum Jaan accepts death in the end and takes pride in dying like a queen. She, along with her women, enter their blazing brothel and decide to self-immolate themselves, much like the famous queen of Chittore. In that very scene, they are being narrated the story of Rani Padmini, also known as Padmavati. As per the legends, the queen did jauhar along with hundreds of other women, before Mughal ruler Alauddin Khilji could invade Chittore and take away their honor.
The story of the queen has, quite effectively, been utilised to provide enough weightage to the film’s effort of putting the idea of women empowerment to the fore.
Sorry, for the spoiler!
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