Social Rejection in Umrao Jaan: A Bane or Boon

Abstract

This Film Umrao Jaan shows how the average courtesan is associated with the Ghazal/Poem through the Lakhnavi courtesan culture. The way of life sets up that a tawaif should be talented in verse, language, religion/custom, and behavior; it is a direct result of these attributes that the respectability of India and refined society invested such a lot of energy with the twaifs. Umrao Jaan reflects a glamorized tale of a tawaif, set in Lucknow in nineteenth-century northern India directed by Muzaffar Ali.

Umrao Jaan, an Indian film is the story of an attractive courtesan named Amiran (Rekha). This paper tries to explore her trauma at rejection by the society. At every stage of her life, she feels the pangs of oppression and rejection. She is suffering without any fault and only to take revenge from her parents she was thrown by her uncle to this profession. She is not able to break away from the cycle of tawaif even after she once again reached her place of birth. Unfortunately, her brother is not in favor of her coming back to the family due to social stigmas. This paper is an attempt to highlight that the tawaifs are not socially acceptable. Society never blames the offenders who convert a girl into a tawaif.