Genre 
Begum Jaan transports us to the communally-charged time of the Partition, and the ‘butchering’ of India into two parts. The film tells the story of a brothel which lies right in the middle of the proposed Radcliffe line. When two officials, one from the Indian National Congress (Ashish Vidyarthi) and another from the All-India Muslim League (Rajit Kapoor), tell the madam of the brothel, Begum Jaan (Vidya Balan), that she has to vacate, she is defiant and determined that nothing can displace her and her girls from their home.
Begum has full faith in the Raja (Naseeruddin Shah), whose patronage she enjoys, but her hopes are eventually dashed when he tells her the reduced authority of royalty in the new, democratic India. Begum Jaan also subtly shows the ‘what if’ side of the Partition. What if men had taken up arms and refused to be divided on the parochial basis of religion?
Tag Archives: Vidya Balan
The Dirty Picture
Imagine a nobody who became an extra and then the most wanted heroine of the early 80s. Chronicling the meteoric rise and steep fall of the erstwhile screen sensation, The Dirty Picture is set against the colorful and entertaining backdrop of the fierce male-dominated South-Indian film industry of the 80s. The quintessential siren, Silk, knew her audiences and it didn’t seem like anything would stop the ambitious starlet, till it did, in the form of unrequited love. To the world, she was the queen of sensuality. But at heart, she was just another woman yearning for love in a ruthless world.
Kahaani
Kolkata is abuzz with the preparations for the annual Durga Puja festival, as seven months pregnant Vidya Bagchi steps off the airplane from London. Her first stop is the local police station to file a missing person report. Weeks ago, her husband Arnab arrived in India for a job assignment. The first two weeks, they talked daily on the phone and then without explanation, his calls stopped. Everywhere Vidya turns, no one can remember Arnab. There is no trace of him at the guest house or his workplace. But Vidya will not give up her search. Somewhere in Kolkata she will discover the dangerous truth.
Bhool Bhulaiyaa
When U.S.-based Siddharth visits his Indian home town with his new wife, he insists they stay at the ancestral home, laughing off family members’ warnings of ghostly goings-on in the mansion. But events soon make him reconsider his beliefs. As unexplained and terrifying occurrences arise, Siddharth calls on his doctor friend to help solve the mystery. What will be the outcome? Will Siddharth’s friend be able to solve this riddle?
Bobby Jasoos
Bobby (Vidya Balan), the eldest daughter in a family living in the old city of Hyderabad has a thing for spying. She aspires to be a detective in spite of her father’s continuous disapproval. In one of her spying ventures, she finds her friend Afreen with a local don, Lala, she keeps it from Afreen’s mother, who employed her. She finally gets a break when a rich client pays her handsomely to find two young girls in the old city, by their name, age and birthmarks without asking any questions. As she finds them he asks her to find a guy as a final job. But, when Bobby tries to see what happened to those two girls, she finds them both missing. Meanwhile, Tasawur (Ali), a handsome TV anchor, having a common friend with Bobby, in a desperate bid to avoid other marriage proposals, proposes to her family to marry her. What did the rich man did with those young girls? How will Bobby deal with Tasawur?
