“What you did this time, oh God, don’t do it again! Don’t let me come as a daughter in my next birth.”
From the song: Agle Janam Mohe Bitiyaa in Umrao Jaan.
Such is the lament of Amiran, a young girl who is kidnapped and sold into prostitution to a courtesan in Lucknow (a city in northern India) by a man seeking revenge on Amiran’s father.
In the late 18th and 19th centuries Lucknow, in the Province of Awadh, was famous for its kothas. Kothas (multi-story mansions made of brick often owned by the head courtesan) were centers of high culture and flourishing businesses. Before and in the time of the British Raj, courtesans were tax-paying business women. The women in a kotha were much more than prostitutes. Tawaifs were the best of the female entertainers, similar to the Japanese Geisha, highly educated–– skilled in dance, music, singing, poetry and etiquette. Courtesans’ clientele were kings and nobility. Often the men chose one woman to patronize and paid a monthly stipend to keep her for him. The head courtesan received at least one-third of the fees to provide for her establishment. The courtesans were enlisted to entertain at palace functions. There were all levels of employees including servants and lesser prostitutes who served non-royalty and working men in the kothas. Men were not part of the management of a kothas.
These centers of arts and culture were also centers of influence on the patrons. One such patron was Mirza Hadi Ruswa, and it was his personal knowledge of the kothas on which he based his 1899 novel Umrao Jaan Ada. He also was a crime-story novelist. He understood the woman and the kothas business, but women did not come to the kothas as victims of kidnapping as young girls. This storyline was more literary license to sell novels than truth. Most women left abhorrent lives of poverty or abuse voluntarily chose this life. Some girls were sold to a courtesan when the parents could no longer afford to feed their daughters. Because in the novel and the film, Umrao Jaan is telling her story directly to Ruswa. The novel was very popular. He tainted the reputation of the kothas with his fictionalization of making it seem that the majority of the women were kidnapped as young girls.
However, the British were the real destroyers of these centers of culture while they seized control of the Province of Awadh. When disease became a problem for the British soldiers, the British enacted a law to inspect the health of the women in the kothas. The life of the courtesans became harder as the British decimated the structure of the group by removing courtesans from the kothas and placing the best and healthiest within the walls of the British cantonments. These savvy business women found ways to survive through bribery and deception.
Amiran, whose name is immediately changed to Umrao (Queen) upon the sale, is now in a world of luxury, money and culture. Since she is a young girl, she will be schooled and protected until her virginity can be sold to one of the wealthy patrons, and she is enthralled by the beauty around her. As Umrao (Aishwarya Rai), she becomes a great dancer, poet and singer––a tawaif. Her exquisite beauty and talent makes her very desirable, and she becomes the exclusive courtesan of a young Nawab (prince) Sultan (Abhishek Bachchan). They fall in love. He promises to marry her.
Based on the novel Umrao Jaan Ada the author, Ruswa, is a character in the movie. Ruswa (Anwar Madeem) is the person to whom Umrao recites her story.
There is so much more to the complexity to the life of the 1850s courtesan than has been developed by J.P. Dutta, the director and co-screenplay writer, in conjunction with his father, O.P. Dutta., of Umrao Jaan.
Quick Facts:
· Umrao Jaan can be translated in several ways. In Hindi or Urdu, Umrao means “queen.” Jaan means life or the loved one and can be used as a term of endearment such as “darling.” In Punjabi it means “sexual drive, strength/power or courage or valor.” In terms of a courtesan and her Pathan lover, Nawab Sultan, this is an interesting and perhaps more fitting translation.
· Nawab is the honorific title bestowed by the reigning Mughal emperor to Muslim rulers in the south Asian princely states. The British government also gave the title along with cash or land to deserving ruling families in the British Raj.
· Nawab Sultan refers to his Pathun (Pashtun) blood and this is often referred to in Bollywood movies. The characterization is instantly established as hot-tempered, strong, fight-to-death, formidable warriors (or Kshatriyas which is the official caste title).
· In reality today, Pathans (Pashtuns) are tribal people of Iranian descent who live in Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is the Pashtuns who drove the Soviets out of Afghanistan. They make up 38% of the population and have a strict ethical code and traditions. They are are excellent marksmen.
· They speak Pashthun (aka Parsi) which is significantly different than Farsi which is spoken by a greater number of people. Finding a translator for Pashtun has been a real problem for American soldiers in Afghanistan. To learn more: read In My Father’s Country: An Afghan Woman Defies Her Fate by Saima Wahab, a Parsi translator for the US Army.
· Shabana Azmi plays Khaanum Jaan, the chaudharayan, or chief courtesan, an older woman who has retired to the position of manager/owner after a successful career as a tawa'if (highly skilled, multi-talented entertainer).
· Shaban’s mother Shaukat Azmi played the same role in the 1981 version which starred the Bollywood icon, Rekha.
· Current Bollywood star & rising American cross-over Priyanka Chopra (TV’s Quantico star) was initially considered for the Umrao Jaan role but couldn’t clear her calendar for the 90-day shoot.
· Saif Ali Khan was considered for the role of Nawab Sultan. Saif is the tenth Nawab of Pataudi although officially the Government of India abolished all the princely states in 1971 so his father was the last official ruling Nawab.
Learn More:
AFGHANS: Their History and Culture, web.archive.org/web/20100127081653/http://www.cal.org/co/afghan/apeop.html#1. web.archive.org is credible according to EasyBib.com evaluation.
Courtney, David. “THE TAWAIF, THE ANTI - NAUTCH MOVEMENT, AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF NORTH INDIAN CLASSICAL MUSIC:” The Tawaif, The Anti-Nautch Movement, and The Development of North Indian Classical Music: The Tawaifs, 1998, chandrakantha.com/articles/tawaif/2_tawaifs.html.
HindiLyrics.Net. “Pehle Pehel Song Lyrics Translation.” Pehle Pehel Lyrics Translation (Umrao Jaan 2006), www.hindilyrics.net/translation-Umrao-Jaan%20-%202006/Pehle-Pehel.html.
Pritchett, Frances. “Lifestyle as Resistance: The Case of the Courtesans of Lucknow.” Lifestyle as Resistance: The Case of the Courtesans of Lucknow (1990), by Veena Talwar Oldenburg, Feminist Studies 16, 2 (Summer 1990), May 2008, www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00urdu/umraojan/txt_veena_oldenburg.html. All editorial comments in double square brackets are by FWP, May 2008.
Wahab, Saima. In My Father's Country: An Afghan Woman Defies Her Fate. Crown Publishers, 2012.