Begum Jaan review roundup: This is what Bollywood critics and celebrities have to say about Vidya Balan's movie

Vidya Balan's movie Begum Jaan will hit the theatres on Friday, April 14, and ahead of the movie release, the makers had held a special screening for the who's who of Bollywood. Begum Jaan has impressed celebrities and a large section of critics, who have heaped praises on the film for its brilliant story.

Celebrities like Jackky Bhagnani, Alia Bhatt, Mahesh Bhatt, Shraddha Kapoor, Rekha, Salil Acharya attended the screening. Critics have claimed that Vidya has pulled off the rugged character of a brothel woman quite impeccably. However, the film lacked strong content and was a sheer waste of talents like Vidya. There were a lot of clichéd moments and the songs too aren't impressive.

Directed by Srijit Mukherji and produced by Mukesh Bhatt, Begum Jaan is based on true events in the backdrop of Punjab during India's Partition in 1947. It is a Hindi adaptation of the hit Bengali film Rajkahini, which was released in 2015, and had won several awards at various international film festivals. The original film featured Rituparna Sengupta in the lead role, and was based in Bengal.

Begum Jaan's plot revolves around the struggle of Begum Jaan (played by Vidya) and her associates to protect the brothel from being demolished by government officials. The brothel is on a land that would mark the border between India and Pakistan. Apart from Vidya, the movie also features Naseeruddin Shah, Gauhar Khan, Ila Arun, Pallavi Sharda among others.

Watch the trailer of Begum Jaan here:

Here are some of the celebrities reviews of Begum Jaan:

Jackky Bhagnani: "All the best to team #BegumJaan !! Some jaw dropping performances !! @GAUAHAR_KHAN @vidya_balan !! More power to you girls !!!"

Actor Salilacharya, in a series of tweets, praised the performances but at the same time claimed the film to be tad slow.

"U have nailed it @GAUAHAR_KHAN tht scene ufff #BegumJaan and @pallavisharda how hot r u looking and watta strong performance #applause"

"And the master returns @vidya_balan #BegumJaan the queen of pauses , tehrav #performance"

"But #BegumJaan inspite of superb performances suffers in pace and editing .. juts too slow to make u go wow sadly"

Below are the Begum Jaan movie review by critics:

Mayank Shekhar of Mid-Day said: "It's pretty ballsy for Vidya Balan to pick up a part like Begum's, although on the face of it, she seems far too soft and feminine to pull of this rugged character, who's foul-mouthed, cynical, suppressed, confident, and very much the head of an independent republic herself. I'm glad this effective film, on the same subject (Indo-Pak partition), is out in Indian theatres for audiences to sit (if not take a stand), and ponder over. In the words of Sahir, used well in this beautiful picture, "Woh subah kabhi toh aayegi."

Meena Iyer of the Times of India said: "It's a good period and story to revisit because even 70-years after Partition, anything around it still piques interest. Then again, here the narrative deals less with the horror of the divide and serves more as an ode to the spiritedness of Begum; widowed in her childhood and sold to a brothel. Also, Mukherji is revisiting his Bengali film Rajkahini(2015). Vidya invests fully in Begum and her dialogue-baazi (a lot of which is raunchy) will get ceetis. However, the writer-director's interest level in everything else, falters."

Shubhra Gupta of Indian Express said: "Many elements in Begum Jaan remind you of older, better films. There's a great deal of stiltedness and awkward dialogue between Rajit Kapur and Ashish Vidyarthi, who play the Muslim and Hindu officials, overseeing the drawing of the line, with faces peering at us from the sides of the screen. The only one who seems to be totally in sync with the jerky heightened silliness of the enterprise is Chunky Pandey who plays a creepy bad guy, hired to get rid of the pesky prostitutes. Such a waste of a talented bunch of actors. And of Balan, who tries hard to invest some feeling into a role which turns into a cliché the moment the film opens."

Rohit Vats of Hindustan Times said: "If Vidya Balan is the showstopper of Begum Jaan, Gauahar Khan and Chunkey Pandey are her most worthy partners. Pandey as a cold blooded contract killer will remain in your memory for some time. The 134-minute long Begum Jaan has Vidya Balan in good form, but it lacks cohesiveness as a complete story. It shies away from delving deep into the theme, but you may appreciate its documentary-like treatment."

Rohit Bhatnagar of Deccan Chronicle said: "The film is watchable but only once. The major hiccup in the film is its poor execution and the whole set up looks fabricated. Maybe a better director would have made this film much more bearable. Watch 'Begum Jaan' for Vidya Balan's impressive performance but don't expect it to be a masterpiece!"

Rajeev Masand of News18.com said: "Mukherji packs too much into this narrative with multiple secondary characters and their back-stories. The violent incidents and constant swearing come at you so often, you turn slightly numb. Vidya throws herself into the part, but plays Begum Jaan so many octaves above normal – it's a waste of her acting talent. Only Gauhar Khan as one of the girls in Begum's inner circle, and Chunky Pandey in a slimy villain role, stand out in the sea of characters. The rest belong to the Highstrung Academy of Overactors."

Namrata Joshi of The Hindu said: "Begum Jaan is shrill, shouts at the viewer in every frame. No wonder even perfectly fine actors end up overdoing things. In the lead role, with her unibrow, deliberate weight and gait, Vidya Balan ends up speechifying more than acting. Most of the films these days come alive with the ensemble than the leads. Begum Jaan, however, is let down badly by the side show, the girls coming across as extremely inept and ineffectual, their lingo and accents is particularly laboured, the body language too designed and deliberate."