All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

A movie with a talented actress like Vidhya Balan & strong story about a brothel in Indo-Pak partition, could have done wonders if it was more of brothel's tough times in it. But, there is no actual partition till now, so whom are they fighting & why. Plus, it's really not understood why are govt officials fighting them to that level? The story which is Pathetic, could have been a strong point like how a brothel could stand undivided despite of cast or religion in hard times. Vidhya Balan, the lead lady is projected more like a self obsessed, boasting, mean, stupid lady, who doesn't understand anything serious & always sulking. If this wasn't enough, the movie is full of foul language, like if there's a brothel there has to be foul language & girls fighting like wild animals with the temperament & no sense at all. Surely no work is accomplished inside brothel without the girls screaming or abusing each other, even if it's as simple as eating. This is definitely nothing what feminism stands for. Direction is stupid, people conversing normally standing meters away from each other. The role of the guy - 'master' is irrelevant and adds nothing to the story. Dialogues - Boring & cold, stretching the movie like anything. Bollywood had movies on this subject like 'Mandi' with awesome performances but this movie is no way near them.

I watched this movie over the weekend as I was getting bored. Wasn't expecting much but this movie surprised me. It is undoubtedly one of the finest movies I have ever seen. I think this is the best of Vidya Baalan till now. Dialogues are very Blunt, very true and you can feel the heaviness in your heart. The bond that the girls share despite having different opinions is what keep you glued. Ignored by society they create their small world, their little dreams shatters and you are left with a scar in your heart. This movie is as real as it can be, it is about their redemption. Chunky Pandey was superb too. This movie is not for masala audience, this is for serious cinema lovers.

I went to watch this movie for two reasons. First was the script and second, our very talented actress Vidya Balan. Vidya was fab as always in her acting, the disappointing part was the idea of the story wasn't executed properly, I would say a lack from director's side. When I watched the trailer and read what this movie it's gonna be about, I was so excited and I thought "WOW" this is gonna be MIND BLOWING. But.. there were many scenes in this movie where I was like "why is this happening? This thing shouldn't be given this much weight as it is been given..", like those overstretched half faces scenes, When Gulabo and Rubina got into a fight and Gulabo starts to laugh all of a sudden (that was a useless scene), and that overstretched scene where Sujit was caught by Kabir and his goon gang, and Master taking revenge on Begum Jaan by fooling Gulabo only to sell her to some other guy (means seriously?? Was this important at all in a movie of such great concept, I mean Come on, you could have added much better things).Chunkey Pandey's Short appearance was really impressive. I wasn't even able to recognize him.Vidya was fabulous as always. And there were so many hard hitting dialogues in this movie that are going to be remembered for a long time like "Baap, Bhai, beta, Shauhar - Begum Jaan ki Chaukhat pr..." and best was "Mahina Hame Ginna aata hai sahib." and there were much more...Gauhar Khan also acted so well in this movie. Her scene with Sujit on that stone place was the best.One thing which in my opinion was the worst that could happen to this movie was the sudden change of hearts of few people in the climax like Ilias shot himself dead, Harshavardhan became a drunk and that policeman quit his police uniform and was looking at the Brothel in regret. They all were so adamant on dismantling that Brothel before, so why were they all so devastated after that happened what they wanted, I mean a little distress was obvious, but this sudden heart of change!! that didn't go well with the story line what they were trying to build.There was a scene where Laadli undresses in front of the Policeman and his reaction felt way too exaggerating when he starts to Puke after seeing her naked.Also, I couldn't understand why Salim was keeping so many guns and ammo?? Why did he need all that?The story was lacking in conveying the emotional trauma the prostitutes were going through while all this was happening. As far as I can remember, there was only one scene where they were all talking about going homeless, and that scene too failed to connect with the audience emotionally. The main idea of the movie was to convey the struggle, the emotional trauma they went through that one month, how insecure they were about going homeless, what they would do, this was their home, their country, their everything... But this was not made the focus of the movie, instead, the director focused on some rubbish chit chats throughout the movie.Overall, I'd say, this movie should be watched if you really want to see some fresh stuff from our film industry, and watching Vidya Balan act, is always a sight for sore eyes... Just loved her performance in this movie. There are a few areas in which this movie do fall Short of our expectations but still, it's worth watching once... Go Watch It... It's not that bad

Visually, Begum Jaan is a beautiful movie. Shot almost entirely in an old haveli in Jharkhand that lends it a real period flavor, the movie has great locales. In my mind, that's a major plus point since these days movies seem to shot mostly in touristy locales outside India (usually as part of a promotional effort by the country's tourist board). The other great thing about this movie is its ensemble cast. Such a pleasure to watch stalwarts Naseeruddin Shah, Ila Arun, Ashish Vidyarthi, Vivek Mushran, Chunkey Pandey and Ranjit Kappor again after all this time. They've all changed so much, but are still very watchable in this film. Begum Jaan has a story that makes for melodrama and the director hasn't tried to steer away from it. It's over the top in places, but hey, if you're telling a story of prostitutes caught up in the partition saga, it's allowed. I went to see it on a Thursday, the last day before it made way for new releases, and the hall was fairly full. Encouraging. Hope we get more movies like this in the future.