Begum Jaan

Really hard to find such movie now a days, which can portray subject so beautifully ..Movie have successfully and strongly passed message to its audience. Its one of the best movie because..

1) Unique story - during independence, where bureaucrats, politician, officers were busy in drawing the partition line, and public were busy in killing their own people in the name of religion. One brothel which somehow going through this line of partition stood up, and didn't allow to demolish it as long as they were alive..

2) True mirror of society - People who do Hindu, Muslim, upper cast,lower cast, temple, mosque, they do visit brothel.. and do not give a damn.. if a prostitute belongs to a specific religion or cast.. In India.. not many such brothels exists openly.. but type of people shown in movie still exists in same way and are in majority.

3 ) People playing social activist , have real face in background, looking for a chance.. to fetch a girl and sell outside... Police, bureaucrats & officers ..are regular visitor for gray market business.. but they enjoy as a free service... Same is happening now .. probably less in brothels..but for rest of the black business also.

4) These prostitutes , neither they were patriotic or religious, were staying in brothel as their own country.. with all freedom inside, and love and respect for each other, and great self esteem.. they died together to protect each other.. and to save their brothel... and outer world.. white color people.. fighting and killing each other for pity matters

5) Each actor have played their role best.. Vidya Balan was in her best.. many dialogues and scenes are mind blowing.. and will be remembered for long time..

6) I salute and thank its director, producers and actors and all involved for creating such great movies...of course it will not be liked by many.. who want to see their own ugly face in mirror..

Why the rating is so poor when "sex" is a positive religion. No mind thinks twice while sex, what is caste, religion, rich and poor. In my guess, all the reviews were based on Pakistan, these days India has hostile relation with Pakistan. The movie reflects the present situation of women in society, they face sexual harassment in every step. One scene makes my sight so cruel when the old woman and young girl stripped her dress.

A strongly written and well-thought script that shows partition vows with a very different and unique angle. Barring the irrelevant noisiness of some characters, it's a well directed and acted movie. Vidya Balan along with other characters like Gauhar Khan, Chunky Pandey, Sumit Nijhawan and Ila Arun were brilliant.

Storyline Rating: 4

Acting Rating: 3 Vidya Balan: 3 Gauhar Khan: 3 Chunky Pandey: 4 Sumit Nijhawan: 4 Ila Arun: 3 Naseeruddin Shah: 3 Pallavi Sharda: 2 Ashish Vidyarthi: 3 Vivek Mushran: 2 Rajit Kapoor: 3

Direction Rating: 3

Music Rating: 3

Cinematography: 3

Editing: 3

Director Srijit Mukherjee is a man of art and with Begum Jaan he has a strong message of self-belief and self-empowerment being the most important part for a country or an individual to be independent and to fight for ones own rights. The movie might appear to be a non-sense or over-dramatic to shallow audience but if even once have you felt weak in the hands of the unwritten, unjust laws of the nation or the society, you would get the essence of this story. This is not a commercial entertainment made up to glamorize the female actors rather a film which speaks about the darker face of the society i.e. a brothel, a place where people go to seek happiness but won't give a damn if required to spread happiness with. And as the brothel and its residents are the life of the movie, the characters are found swearing in almost every other dialogue, hence the movie is not recommended for meek audience.

Strength: Acting, Casting for each character, Songs seem situational thus goes okay with the scenes. Weakness: Sub plots-which are there for a reason to depict the external factors leading to the present situation of each character, but is feels dislodged at times.

Great casting! Apt locations! But am I the only one who thinks there was really no story to support the movie? Two aspects that were beyond my understanding - First, I am at a loss to understand a compelling reason for the ladies to live in that house, even at the cost of their lives. It is not as if a rogue neighbor or a local goon was kicking them off their property (and they didn't own the house either; the King did!]). It was a freaking partition of the country! And they weren't the only ones being marginally inconvenienced. Millions of people lost their homes and life savings; hundreds of thousands lost their lives because they couldn't escape early enough. Why did the ladies want to live there? They weren't leaving their farms behind. They could continue with their profession wherever they relocated! Second, the two gentlemen assigned to put a fence along the partition line - what was so compelling that they couldn't move the partition line by 100 meters so the house would safely fall in either of the countries? The ladies did not care if they were in India or Pakistan - all they wanted was live where they were and continue with their lives. What was so important that the country line had to be drawn through their house? What was so important about that piece of land that made it more important than the tens of lives they were willing to sacrifice? There are reasons why people prefer to fight for their rights even at the cost of their lives. And there are principles folks follow even if it costs lives. But neither of these seemed like a valid reason in the story.