Why "Rajkahini" is better than "Begum Jaan"?

In 2017, a Hindi remake of the 2015 Bengali film Rajkahini is made and released, 'Begum Jaan'. It was the first Hindi film by the famous and appreciated Bengali director, Srijit Mukherji. 'Rajkhaini' directly deals with the issue of Partition. The movie deals with the problems faced by the Radcliffe's border from Bengal's side. One of the problems is a Brothel of Begum Jaan through which the border is supposed to be passed and hence it needed to be vacated. 'Begum Jaan' is also about the same story-line from Punjab's side. But, there is a big difference between both the films, especially in terms of tone. Rajkahini is out and out dark with ample background of the scenario of partition. Riots and political upheavals are clearly depicted. Before the audience meets the brothel and Begum Jaan, they are well informed about the scenario and the dark times the film is about. In Hindi version, the character of Begum Jaan seems to be more important than the partition. There is no perspective on socio-political upheaval; no or very minimum (that too, un-effective) background is provided about the outer parts of the society.

Apart from the depiction of riots, in 'Rajkahini', the most interesting presentation is of the two leaders who are bearing the responsibility of drawing the border in the given area: Prafulla Sen (representative of Congress) and Muhammad Ilias (representative of Mulsim league). Both of them have their own stories of suffering in riots, their childhood memories of friendship; but now they have to act as enemies and develop some sort of hate for each other to fulfill the harsh responsibility. Most of the time, they are screened opposite each other in the frame symbolically representing the two nations' newly developed animosity. Whenever they discuss about the partition and riots only part of their face were in the frame, the other part, may be the human part, was out of the frame. This strategy was used quite effectively in the movie. In 'Begum Jaan', the riots were almost absent. The representative leaders are: Hari Prasad Srivastav and Illiyas Khan. The above mentioned strategy was used but not at length, like the original film, and it was not even that effective.

The grandma in both the films tells the stories to young girl. While her stories were about many different heroes in Bengali, in Hindi, they were confined to female bravery. There are stories of Rani Lakshmi Bai, Meera Bai and Raziya Sultana; there is a semi-animated story on-screen while these tales were being narrated and in all these visuals Vidya Balan (the actress who played Begum Jaan) is seen as Lakshmi Bai, Meera Bai and Raziya Sultana. Thus, from the very beginning, the film becomes a story of hero-worshipping. 

'Rajkahani' never forgets that the partition of two countries are taking place, but 'Begun Jaan' is only concerned with the issue of brothel, the outside world is almost non-existent. As the titles suggest, 'Rajkahani', i.e., 'story of politics' is more concerned and detailed about the politics played by the leaders from all three sides: India, Pakistan and British. But, 'Begum Jaan' is just about the brothel and the bravery of Begum Jaan. Begum Jaan gets more footage and prominence in the Hindi version, while in Bengali version almost all the inhabitants of the brothel had their story; their casts and aspirations are also well described. 

Very interestingly, 'Rajkahini' begins with the independence day celebration at Indo- Pak border by the army of both the countries, in which the footage of partition riots is inserted, juxtaposing, the past and the present. And the movie ends with the background song of "Jana gana mana" in Bengali. While 'Begum Jaan' begins in a metro city of India where some young boys are trying to rape a girl and an aged lady comes. In order to save the girl, the old lady strips herself naked on the sight of which the boys leave the girl. Later, we come to know that the old lady is one of the survivors from the brothel of Begum Jaan, Laadli. The film ends with a song, "wo subahaa kabhi to aayegi" (that morning will come some day). These opening sequences and endings make it quite clear that both the versions of the film have a very different perspectives. While both the films talks about women empowerment, 'Rajkahani' becomes a societal saga while 'Begum Jaan' remains an individualistic one. We can notice this fact from the poster of the films as well. 

There is a lot of poetic justice in 'Begum Jaan'. For example, Iliyas Khan commits suicide after the massacre of Begum Jaan and her girls; Gulabo returns and kills Masterji, etc. Such small incidents make the story artificial. It loses the raw reality of 'Rajkahini'. The dialogues are also very sophisticated compared to the original. It seems that Regional cinema is bolder and braver in telling the story than the 'so called' main-stream cinema.