Music release of J. P. Dutta's Umrao Jaan - III

In comparison (very unfairly though), Aishwarya Rai is not even a patch on Rekha. I know that she’s the most beautiful woman on this planet (an oft used expression for Aishwarya Rai) and that she’s the most recognizable Indian faces on the world stage and all that rubbish. However, personally I don’t rate Aishwarya Rai very highly, both in terms of looks as well as performance. But then that’s me and I may be in minority.

Another very irritating fact that I noted is that in all the interviews that Aishwarya Rai gave to the sound-byte-hungry news channels, she seemed to put on such a fake stiff upper lip accent and tried to sound extremely intelligent about her interpretation and take of role of Umrao Jaan in J. P. Dutta’s interpretation of Mirza Hadi Ruswa`s novel. It’s the best “most fake and pretentious” interview that I’ve heard in recent times.

Music release of J. P. Dutta's Umrao Jaan - II

The two songs that have been released don’t seem to be very impressive. The first song “Salaam” which is a solo song picturised on Aishwarya Rai and I think it’s sung by Alka Yagnik. There is another duet song that is already on air these days and it’s picturised on Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai. I think it’s sung by Sonu Nigam and Alka Yagnik. Honestly, I wasn’t too impressed with either of the songs.

In all fairness, I must admit that when I hear the songs of J. P. Dutta’s Umrao Jaan, I invariably end up comparing it with the music of Muzaffar Ali’s Umrao Jaan which was composed by Khayyam which songs have been made deeply etched in my memory with the soulful voice of Asha Bhosle and the timeless Rekha.

Music release of J. P. Dutta's Umrao Jaan - I

Very recently, the music of J. P. Dutta’s Umrao Jaan was released on October 3, 2006 and the music videos of couple of songs from the movie have started appearing on television. The music of J. P. Dutta’s Umrao Jaan is by Anu Malik and lyrics are by Javed Akhtar.

Cannot resist but make the following observations.

According to the filmmaker J. P. Dutta and his lead actors, Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai, this film is not a remake of Muzaffar Ali’s Umrao Jaan that was released in the year 1981. According to J. P. Dutta, his film is based on Mirza Hadi Ruswa`s novel Umrao Jaan Ada, published in the year 1904 and was probably one of the first Urdu book that was ever printed and it is J. P. Dutta’s interpretation of the Ruswa’s novel.