Umrao Jaan (1981)

In the mid-nineteenth century, young Amiran is abducted from Faizabad and sold to Khanum Jaan, who runs a house of courtesans in Lucknow. Trained in music, dance and Urdu poetry, she becomes Umrao Jaan, admired by the city's nobility, yet the men who love her, from the gentle Nawab Sultan to the bandit Faiz Ali, cannot give her the life or the home she longs for, and the upheaval of 1857 sweeps through her world. Based on Mirza Hadi Ruswa's 1899 Urdu novel Umrao Jan Ada, the film is famed for its lavish recreation of old Lucknow and Khayyam's ghazals, including 'Dil Cheez Kya Hai', 'In Aankhon Ki Masti' and 'Justuju Jiski Thi'. Rekha won the National Award for Best Actress, Khayyam and Asha Bhosle won National Awards for music and singing, and Muzaffar Ali won the Filmfare Award for Best Director. J. P. Dutta remade it in 2006.