''Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities'' (or ''Meenaxi'') is a 2004 Hindi film directed by

M. F. Husain Maqbool Fida Husain (17 September 1915 – 9 June 2011) was an Indian artist known for executing bold, vibrantly coloured narrative paintings in a modified Cubist style. He was one of the most celebrated and internationally recognised Ind ...

and starring

Tabu Tabu may refer to: Cultural and legal concepts *Taboo (spelled ''tabu'' in earlier historical records), something that is unacceptable in society *Tapu (Polynesian culture) (also spelled ''tabu''), a Polynesian cultural concept from which the wor ...

Kunal Kapoor Kunal Kapoor may refer to: * Kunal Kapoor (actor, born 1959), Indian film actor * Kunal Kapoor (actor, born 1977), Indian actor, writer and entrepreneur * Kunal Kapoor (cricketer) (born 1987), Indian cricketer * Kunal Karan Kapoor (born 1982), In ...

and

Raghuvir Yadav Raghubir Yadav is an Indian actor, music composer, singer and set designer who works in Hindi films. He made his film debut with '' Massey Sahib'' (1985), in which he played the title role. He has won two International Awards as Best Actor for ...

. The film is centered on

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India ...

novelist Nawab (Yadav) who is suffering from

writer's block Writer's block is a condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author is either unable to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown. Mike Rose found that this creative stall is not a result of commitment problems or th ...

. After five years and no stories, Nawab comes across an unconventional muse, Meenaxi (Tabu). The three cities referred to in the title are

Jaisalmer Jaisalmer , nicknamed "The Golden city", is a city in the Indian state of Rajasthan, located west of the state capital Jaipur. The town stands on a ridge of yellowish sandstone and is crowned by the ancient Jaisalmer Fort. This fort contains a ...

and

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

. The film features an acclaimed score and soundtrack by A.R. Rahman. It is semi-autobiographical in some respects. There are allusions to Husain's own experiences with his muse,

Madhuri Dixit Madhuri Dixit Nene (née Dixit; born 15 May 1967) is an Indian actress who primarily works in Hindi films. A leading actress of Indian cinema, she has appeared in over 70 films. Noted by critics for her beauty, dancing skills, and characters ...

, with whom he made his previous film, ''

Gaja Gamini ''Gaja Gamini'' (English: ''Woman with an elephant's gait.'') is a 2000 Indian film written and directed by M. F. Husain and is his ode to womanhood and his muse of the time, Madhuri Dixit, who stars as the lead in the film with Shahrukh Khan ...

'' (2000). The film was screened in the Marché du Film section of the

2005 Cannes Film Festival The 58th Cannes Film Festival started on 11 May and ran until 22 May 2005. Twenty movies from 13 countries were selected to compete. The awards were announced on 21 May. The Palme d'Or went to the Belgian film '' L'Enfant'' by Dardenne brothers. ...

Synopsis

Nawab, a popular Hyderabadi novelist, is suffering from a classic case of writer's block. Five years have passed, and stories of substance seem to have dried up. Then, almost providentially, Nawab comes across a young woman named Meenaxi. She's enigmatic and individualistic – and not quite willing to perform the part of a passive muse. But that doesn't deter a rejuvenated Nawab from giving her different personae – she can be the mysterious perfume trader of Hyderabad, the exotic desert bloom of Jaisalmer or the orphaned Maria of Prague. Inexorably, she consolidates her command over the novelist. She dismisses his renewed attempts at writing as insubstantial and hackneyed, plunging him into a state of deeper despair. She is scathingly critical about his story and is amused by one of his characters, the lovelorn and awkward Kameshwar. Finally, as Nawab strives on a new page all over again, Meenaxi comments that perhaps the book is in vain. In any case, it is much too late. The writer must survive and live, if he can, without her support, inspiration and criticism.

Cast

– Meenaxi *

– Kameshwar Mathur *

Remo D'Souza Remo D'Souza (born Ramesh Gopi Nair; 2 April 1974), is an Indian choreographer, actor, film director and producer, based in Mumbai. He is best known for his works in ''Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani'' (2014) and ''Bajirao Mastani'' (2016). In a career ...

– Kameshwar's Friend *

– Nawab *

Nadira Babbar Nadira Babbar (born 20 January 1948) is an Indian theatre actress, director and an actress in Hindi cinema, who is the recipient of Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2001. Nadira founded a Mumbai-based theatre group called Ekjute, a known name in H ...

– Khala / Masi

Soundtrack

A. R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967) is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer and songwriter, popular for his works in Indian cinema; predominantly in Tamil and Hindi films, with occasional forays in int ...

composed the music on lyrics written by

Rahat Indori Rahat Indori, born as Rahat Qureshi, (1 January 1950 – 11 August 2020) was an Indian Bollywood lyricist and Urdu poet. He was also a former professor of Urdu language and a painter. Prior to this he was a pedagogist of Urdu literature at DAV ...

, and Sukhwinder Singh. The music for ''Meenaxi'' was released on 24 January 2004 creating great controversies regarding the song "Noor-Un-Ala" which had lyrics directly adapted from the

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , s ...

. The soundtrack of the movie got high appreciations from the critics. Rahman composed some of his career best songs for it. The background score was also composed by Rahman. Rahman goes completely into Qawwali rhythms for Hyderabad, a rustic, earthy, Arabic rhythms for Jaisalmer and a rich lavish strings for Prague and brings out the essence and cultures of the three cities through his enticing scores. The initial lines of "Chinnamma Chilakamma" give a feel of

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

peppy number, but as Sukhwinder Singh picks up his lines, a Hyderabadi accent is revealed. The lyrics are penned by Sukhwinder Singh. "Rang Hai" is like a rustic mysterious cry of a woman. Alka Yagnik is the main vocalist whilst Lebanese singer Dallinda provided additional vocals. "Dhuan Dhuan" is a sultry and seductive number sung by

Asha Bhosle Asha Bhosle (; Mangeshkar; born 8 September 1933) is an Indian playback singer, entrepreneur and occasional actress and television personality who predominantly works in Indian Cinema. Known for her versatility, she has been described in th ...

. Additional vocals is by Kunal and percussions by Rahman's usual associate

Sivamani Sivamani (1 December 1959), commonly known by his stage name Drums Sivamani, is an Indian percussionist. He plays many instruments including drums, octoban, darbuka, udukai, ghatam and kanjira. He performed drumming during the IPL Championship ...

. Rahman said about recording of this song at the filmfare: "For one song, we started with no tune and no lyrics either. One afternoon I bumped into Lataji and Ashaji in London. I asked Ashaji if she'd do a song with me the next day. She had to go to Scotland the next day. But she returned in a few days and we finished the track "Dhuan Dhuan" in four hours in London." "Yeh Rishta" is a melody sung by Reena Bhardwaj who has previously worked with Rahman in a chartbuster song for the

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

movie '' Baba''. It was later reused by Rahman in the

movie ''

Sakkarakatti ''Sakkarakatti'' () is a 2008 Indian Tamil-language musical romantic comedy film written and directed by Kala Prabhu and produced by his father, Kalaipuli S. Dhanu. It featured debutant Shanthanu Bhagyaraj, son of veteran actor K. Bhagyaraj, in ...

'' as "Naan Epodhu" with the same singer which then became a chartbuster. It was picturised as Tabu's solo entrance piece in the film. "Do Kadam" is highly regarded as one of Rahman's best compositions. This song is sung by

Sonu Nigam Sonu Nigam (born 30 July 1973) is an Indian singer, music director and actor. He has been described in the media as one of the most popular and successful playback singers of Hindi Cinema and Kannada Cinema. He has been honoured by the Governme ...

with lyrics provided by Rahat Indori. ''Planetbollywood'' referred to this song as the best from

. The controversial song "Noor-Un-Ala-Noor" is a Sufi style song sung by Murtaza Khan and Qadir Khan, together called Khan brothers. Lyrics for the song were by M. F. Hussain which slightly adapted the

ic verses honouring Allah to honour the lead character Meenaxi. Husain wrote in ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

'' about this song, "There is a qawwali written by me and sung by classical musicians Ustad Ghulam Mustafa and his son for which Rahman has tuned unusual music. The film opens with this qawwali, the picturisation of which is a major highlight ... The qawwali is exultant about the presence of the light and what a light it is! It is a Sufi thought, a thought that keep us going even when there is pitch darkness." "Cyclist's Rhythm" and "Potter's Village" were

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to inst ...

s composed by Rahman with percussions by

and flute by Navin Kumar in the former and percussions by

Hossam Ramzy Hossam Ramzy ( ar, حسام رمزي; 15 December 1953 – 10 September 2019) was an Egyptian percussionist and composer. He worked with English artists like Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, Siouxsie Sioux, as well as with Arabic music artists like R ...

and strings by

John Themis John Themis is an Australian-born musician, songwriter and record producer, best known for his long-term work with Boy George and Culture Club, collaborating on many of their songs and albums since the 1990s. He also worked on ''Taboo'', a music ...

in the latter.

Track listing

Reception

The soundtrack for ''Meenaxi'' has received positive reviews from critics and fans. Since the film failed at the box office due to controversies created, the soundtrack too remained unnoticed. But the tracks "Yeh Rishta" and "Chinnamma Chillakkamma" were successful when they were reused in the

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

movie ''

''.

Noor-Un-Ala controversy

The audio was released on 24 January 2004 creating controversy regarding the song "Noor-Un-Ala" which had lyrics directly taken from the

. The movie was pulled from cinemas a day after some Muslim organisations raised objections to the song. The All-India Ulema Council complained that the

Qawwali Qawwali (Punjabi language, Punjabi: (Shahmukhi), (Gurmukhi); Urdu: (Nastaʿlīq, Nasta'liq); Hindi: क़व्वाली (Devanagari); Bengali language, Bengali: কাওয়ালি (Bengali alphabet, Bengali)) is a form of Sufi Isl ...

song was blasphemous. The council was supported by Muslim organisations like the Milli Council, All-India Muslim Council, Raza Academy, Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Hind and Jamat-e-Islami. Husain's son stated that the words were a phrase referring to divine beauty that were being sung for the central character played by

. He said there was no intention to offend. Following the wave of protests the enraged artist pulled his movie from theatres.

Awards

* 2003: National Film Awards: Best Production Design:

Sharmishta Roy Sharmishta Roy is an Indian film art director and production designer who works predominantly in Hindi cinema. Personal life Born to Sudhendu Roy, noted production designer of Bimal Roy's films, like '' Sujata'' (1959), ''Madhumati'' (195 ...

* 2005:

Screen Awards The Screen Awards is an annual awards ceremony held in India honouring professional excellence in Bollywood. The nomination and award selection is done by a panel of distinguished professionals from the industry. The awards were introduced by t ...

** Best Cinematography:

Santosh Sivan Santosh Sivan (born 8 February 1964) is an Indian cinematographer, film director, producer and actor known for his works in Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi cinema. Santosh graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India and has to dat ...

* 2005:

Zee Cine Awards The Zee Cine Award (ZCA) is an Indian awards ceremony for the Hindi film industry. They were instituted in November 1997 to award "Excellence in cinema - the democratic way". They were first held in Mumbai until 2004, when the ZCA went internat ...

** Best Art Direction:

** Best Cinematography:

Awards

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

Notes

External links

* {{IMDb title, 0366761 2000s Hindi-language films Urdu-language Indian films 2004 films Films shot in the Czech Republic Films scored by A. R. Rahman Films whose production designer won the Best Production Design National Film Award Films distributed by Yash Raj Films 2000s Urdu-language films