Begum Jaan Trailer: It's Vidya Balan's Show All Along | HuffPost

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Another National Award in the offing?

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Entertainment Editor

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Vishesh Films

Vidya Balan, who was last seen in Sujoy Ghosh's Kahaani 2, is back with yet another hard-hitting drama, the Srijit Mukherji-directed Begum Jaan.

Balan, who has played the role of a wronged actress (The Dirty Picture), a pregnant woman looking for her missing husband (Kahaani), and a mother to a child suffering from progeria (Paa), has found yet another powerful character in Begum Jaan.

The actress essays the role of a dynamic, no-nonsense madam of a brothel, one who puts up a brave front when her home (as she calls it) is on the verge of being demolished.

The film is a period saga with the India-Pakistan partition as the backdrop. It marks the Hindi directorial debut of Mukherji, who has previously made critically acclaimed Bengali films like, Rajkahini (the film BegumJaan is adapted from) and HemlockSociety (2012).

The makers have also worked to give Balan's character a look relevant to the era that the film is set in. If you notice closely, she has a unibrow in the film.

While the overall film's treatment is decidedly melodramatic, Vidya Balan looks completely in-charge of her character as she mouths one memorable line after another.

Though the cast is an eclectic one -- Naseeruddin Shah, Chunky Pandey, Rajit Kapur, Ashish Vidyarthi, Gauahar Khan, and Ila Arun -- it is easy to determine that Balan will most likely steal the show.

Watch the trailer below:

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-- This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.

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