''Zubeidaa'' is a 2001 Indian film directed by

Shyam Benegal Shyam Benegal (born 14 December 1934) is an Indian film director, screenwriter and documentary filmmaker. Often regarded as the pioneer of parallel cinema, he is widely considered as one of the greatest filmmakers post 1970s. He has received ...

and written by

Khalid Mohammed Khalid Mohamed is an Indian journalist, editor, film critic, screenwriter and film director. He formerly worked for the '' Hindustan Times'' and was the lead editor for ''Filmfare'' magazine. He is the son of Hindi film actress Zubeida B ...

. It stars

Karisma Kapoor Karisma Kapoor (born 25 June 1974) is an Indian actress, who works in Hindi films. A member of the Kapoor family, she is the recipient of several accolades, including a National Film Award and four Filmfare Awards. Kapoor made her acting de ...

Rekha Bhanurekha Ganesan (born 10 October 1954), better known by her stage name Rekha, is an Indian actress who appears predominantly in Hindi films. Acknowledged as one of the finest actresses in Indian cinema, she has starred in more than 180 fil ...

Manoj Bajpayee Manoj Bajpayee (born 23 April 1969), also transliterated as Manoj Bajpai, is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Hindi cinema and has also done Telugu and Tamil language films. Regarded as one of the finest actors of Hindi cinema, he i ...

, Surekha Sikri,

Rajit Kapoor Rajit Kapur is an Indian people, Indian film and theatre actor and director. He is known for his portrayal of Mahatma Gandhi in the 1996 film, ''The Making of the Mahatma'' for which he won the National Film Award for Best Actor. Other notabl ...

Lillete Dubey Lillete Dubey (born 7 September 1953) is an Indian actress and theatre director. She has worked in Indian and international theatre, television and films in Hindi and English languages. Dubey began her career with Barry John in Delhi and was the ...

Amrish Puri Amrish Puri (22 June 1932 – 12 January 2005) was an Indian actor, who was one of the most notable and important figures in Indian cinema and Theatre. He acted in more than 450 films, established himself as one of the most popular actors ...

Farida Jalal Farida Jalal (born Farida Sami; 18 May 1950) is an Indian actress who primarily worked in Hindi films. In a film career spanning almost fifty years, Jalal appeared in over 200 films. Best known for her character-driven roles in independent cin ...

, and

Shakti Kapoor Shakti Kapoor (born Sunil Kapoor; 3 September 1952) is an Indian actor and comedian who appears in Bollywood films. Known for his villainous and comic roles in Hindi films, he has featured in over 600 films. In the 1980s and 1990s, Kapoor teame ...

. A.R. Rahman has scored the background music and soundtrack for the movie. ''Zubeidaa'' is the concluding chapter in a trilogy that began with ''

Mammo ''Mammo'' is a 1994 Indian Hindi film by Shyam Benegal. It stars Farida Jalal, Surekha Sikri, Amit Phalke and Rajit Kapur. The film won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi in 1995. Farida Jalal won Filmfare Critics Award f ...

'' (1994) and continued with ''

Sardari Begum ''Sardari Begum'' is a 1996 Indian musical film directed by Shyam Benegal. The film stars Kiron Kher, Amrish Puri, Rajit Kapur and Rajeshwari Sachdev. The film's lead actress Kiron Kher won the 1997 National Film Award - Special Jury Award. ...

'' (1996). The film is based on the life of the ill-fated actress

Zubeida Begum Vidya Rani (born Zubeida Begum) (1926 – 26 January 1952), often known as Zubeida or Zubeidaa, was an Indian actress. Early life Zubeida Begum was the daughter of Shri Qasembhai Mehta, a Bohra Muslim businessman, and Faiza Bai, a singer in B ...

, who married

Hanwant Singh Raj Rajeshwar Maharajadhiraj Shri Hanwant Singh Rathore of Jodhpur (16 June 1923 – 26 January 1952) was the ruler of the Indian princely state of Jodhpur. He succeeded his father as Maharaja of Jodhpur on 9 June 1947 and held the title till ...

Jodhpur Jodhpur (; ) is the second-largest city in the Indian state of Rajasthan and officially the second metropolitan city of the state. It was formerly the seat of the princely state of Jodhpur State. Jodhpur was historically the capital of the Ki ...

and was the mother of the film's writer,

Khalid Mohamed Khalid Mohamed is an Indian journalist, editor, film critic, screenwriter and film director. He formerly worked for the ''Hindustan Times'' and was the lead editor for ''Filmfare'' magazine. He is the son of Hindi film actress Zubeida Begum, ...

. The film garnered the

National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi The National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India. It is one of several a ...

and won

Filmfare Award The Filmfare Awards are annual awards that honour artistic and technical excellence in the Hindi-language film industry of India.Al The Filmfare ceremony is one of the most famous film events in India. The awards were first introduced by th ...

for Best Actress (Critics). It is regarded by many critics as Kapoor's best performance (alongside ''

Fiza ''Fiza'', also known as ''Fiza: In Search Of Her Brother'', is a 2000 Indian Hindi-language crime thriller film written and directed by Khalid Mohammed. It stars Karisma Kapoor as the eponymous lead, along with Hrithik Roshan as her terrorist ...

'' where she also played the title role). The film was highly acclaimed and is regarded as of one of Benegal's best works blurring the lines of commercial and parallel cinema.

Plot

''Zubeidaa'' is the story of Riyaz's (

) search to understand his mother, who is not known to him, as he was brought up by his maternal grandmother in the absence of his mother. His mother's name was Zubeidaa (

) and she was the only daughter of a filmmaker named Suleman Seth (

). Zubeidaa acts in films secretly, but when her father finds out he forbids her to carry on and quickly arranges her marriage to his friend's son Dr. Mehboob Alam who becomes a

Gharjamai Across the Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, proje ...

. Things seem happy for her when she gives birth to Riyaz. However, a disagreement arises between Suleman and Mehboob's father, and Mehboob divorces Zubeidaa a few days after she gives birth. Heartbroken Zubeidaa then meets Maharaja Vijayendra Singh of Fatehpur (

). Vijayendra is already married to Maharani Mandira Devi (

) and is the father of two children. Nevertheless, he falls in love with Zubeidaa and they get married, but there is continuous turmoil in their relationship. Riyaz learns through Zubeidaa's journal that though she loved Vijayendra dearly, she was unable to follow the stifling customs of the palace. She was also uncomfortable because of her brother-in-law Uday Singh's sexual advances towards her, and his demands of her to have an extra-marital affair with him. Riyaz travels to Fatehpur and asks many people about his mother. However, all except Mandira, whom Zubeidaa called "Mandy Didi", either deny that his mother ever existed, or say that she was a horrible woman who seduced their king and caused his death in a plane crash. On reading the journal, Riyaz finds out that Vijayendra had become a politician, and was about to go to

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

for an important meeting. Zubeidaa felt frustrated that whenever her husband needed help he looked to Mandira for support, and at the last minute, she insisted that only she will accompany him to the meeting. The plane crashes, killing Zubeidaa and Vijayendra. It is indicated that Uday Singh probably had the plane sabotaged to kill Vijayendra and Mandira so that he could get both - Zubeidaa and the kingdom. In the end, Riyaz gets the missing tape of his mother's only film, from Mandira. The movie ends with him finally getting to watch the film with his grandmother shedding tears of happiness, watching Zubeidaa dancing happily as the spirited soul that she truly was.

Cast

... Zubeidaa Suleiman Seth/Zubeidaa Mehboob Alam/Rani Meenakshi Devi *

... Maharani Mandira Devi (Mandy) *

... Maharaja Vijayendra Singh (Victor) * Rahul Singh ... Raja Digvijay "Uday" Singh *

Rajit Kapur Rajit Kapur is an Indian film and theatre actor and director. He is known for his portrayal of Mahatma Gandhi in the 1996 film, '' The Making of the Mahatma'' for which he won the National Film Award for Best Actor. Other notable roles are as ...

... Riyaz Masud * Surekha Sikri ... Fayyazi *

... Suleiman Seth *

Seema Pahwa Seema Bhargava Pahwa (born 10 February 1962) is an Indian actress known for her comedic characters in films and television. She rose to prominence for her role of ''Badki'' in the popular Doordarshan soap opera ''Hum Log (television series), Hu ...

... Zainab Bi *

... Mammo *

... Dance Master Hiralal *

... Rose Davenport *

Ravi Jhankal Ravi Jhankal is an Indian television, stage and film actor, most known for working in Shyam Benegal's films, including ''Welcome to Sajjanpur'' (2008) and ''Well Done Abba'' (2010) and for the role of P. V. Narasimha Rao in ''Pradhanmantri (TV S ...

... Girivar Singh *

Smriti Mishra Smriti Mishra is an Indian actress, most known for her roles in Shyam Benegal's ''Sardari Begum'', Sudhir Mishra's Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin, Pamela Rooks's ''Train to Pakistan,'' '' Manish Tiwary's Dil Dosti Etc and Vijay Singh's Jaya Ganga'' . ...

... Sardari Begum *

S M Zaheer S.M. Zaheer (एस एम ज़हीर) is an Indian character actor. He acted in the early Hindi TV dramas ''Hum Log (television series), Hum Log'' and ''Buniyaad'' on Doordarshan. Early life and career He belongs to Asandra village in Ba ...

... Sajid Masud *

Harish Patel Harish Patel (born 5 July 1953) is an Indian character actor. He has appeared in a variety of Hindi films, but in recent years has begun to appear in American projects like reimagination of ''Four Weddings and a Funeral'' on Hulu. His latest pr ...

... Nandlal Seth

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was released in 2000 and contained eight tracks, all composed by

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 ...

, with lyrics by

Javed Akhtar Javed Akhtar (born 17 January 1945) is an Indian poet, lyricist, screenwriter and political activist. Known for his work in Hindi cinema, he has won five National Film Awards, and received the Padma Shri in 1999 and the Padma Bhushan in 200 ...

Lata Mangeshkar Lata Mangeshkar () (born as Hema Mangeshkar; 28 September 1929 – 06 February 2022) was an Indian playback singer and occasional music composer. She is widely considered to have been the greatest and most influential singers in India. Her cont ...

collaborated with the musician again for a couple of tracks. Other singers,

Kavita Krishnamurthy Sharada Krishnamurthy, popularly known as Kavita Krishnamurthy or Kavita Subramaniam, is an Indian playback and classical singer. She has recorded 50,000 songs in 45 various Indian languages including Hindi, Bengali, Kannada, Rajasthani, Bhojp ...

and

Alka Yagnik Alka, AlkA or ALKA may refer to: People * Alka Ajith (born c. 1997), Indian multilingual playback singer * Alka Amin (active from 2011), Indian television actress * Alka Balram Kshatriya, Indian politician, Member of the Parliament of India repr ...

walked away with all accolades for their renditions in their respective tracks.

Reception

Suman Tarafdar of ''

Filmfare ''Filmfare'' is an Indian English language, English-language fortnightly magazine published by Worldwide Media. Acknowledged as one of Indian most popular entertainment magazines, it publishes pieces involving news, interviews, photos, videos, r ...

'' described the film as "very much a classy Benegal film, with new explorations of the human relationships in their multi-layered frameworks." and Kapoor "for having come up with such an assured performance".

Awards

Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress The Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress is given by '' Filmfare'' as part of its annual Filmfare Awards for Hindi–language films. Superlatives * 2 actresses have won the award in consecutive years; in chronological order, they are Mani ...

–

References

External links

* {{Shyam Benegal 2001 films 2000s Hindi-language films Films directed by Shyam Benegal Films about actors Films about women in India Films about royalty Films set in Rajasthan Films scored by A. R. Rahman Best Hindi Feature Film National Film Award winners Films distributed by Yash Raj Films Films about Bollywood