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Zubeidaa

Play trailer Poster for Zubeidaa Released Jan 19, 2001 2h 33m Romance Play Trailer Watchlist
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The East Indian actress (Karisma Kapoor) gives birth to a son and marries a prince (Manoj Bajpai) before dying in a car crash.

Audience Reviews

View All (15) audience reviews
Audience Member I don't know. I had to watch it because it was from my fav director. Didn't impress me though. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member An interesting and different movie. A good story like brought to us by director Shyam Benegal who keeps the movie flowing in-spite of numerous transitions between the past and the present. Karishma Kapoor does a good job here. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member One of the last great Movies of Karisma I watched before I threw her in the "No Thanks to Bollywood New Trash Movies" section. Plot:: Zubeidaa is a story of a young man Riyaz's (Rajit Kapur) quest to recover the memory of his mother Zubeidaa (Karisma Kapoor), a mother he never knew. Brought up by his grandmother from the age of three, all knowledge of his mother was kept away from him. Troubled by the scant knowledge he has of his mother, Riyaz sets about trying to piece together her life from the memories of those who knew her. Extremely talented and beautiful, Zubeidaa is the only daughter of Suleman Seth (Amrish Puri), a film producer in Mumbai. Zubeidaa's dreams and aspirations are never on her father's priority list. Zubeidaa's happiness more often than not, falls victim to her father's completely unjustified domination over her life. Suleman Seth is instrumental in cutting short her burning ambition of becoming a film actress. Suleman Seth is also responsible for giving Zubeidaa the biggest jolt of her life by forcibly getting her married to a boy whom she does not even know properly, leave alone liking him. The repurcussions of this were severe and as far as Zubeidaa is concerned the mental agony born out of this forced wedlock appears almost intolerable. Behind every dark cloud lies a silver lining, they say and this is exactly what happens in Zubeidaa's life. Her life takes a turn for the better and life a whiff of fresh air, romance makes unexpected entrance in her life in the form of Maharaja Vijayendra Singh (Manoj Bajpai). Sparks fly and both fall head over heels in love but this so-called path of love is not devoid of social thorns. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/02/23 Full Review Audience Member I am sorry but this one sucked. With the exception of Rekha's participation, the whole thing was a disaster in my opinion. The role of Zubeidaa follows the typical capricious female character so common in mainstream Bollywood. I don't think Karishma is any special at all; having abrupt explosions of emotion is not acting... no wonder Aamir Khan refuses to go to the awards.. I still can't understand how Karishma got the best actress for this. Quite frankly, it seems her fair skin and green eyes are good enough...and the photography is awful, bad scenes, bad sequences.. not for those who enjoy the good Indian thought-provoking productions. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/25/23 Full Review Audience Member it was alright. not my favorite. ok songs. zubeidaa is kind of annoying. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/30/23 Full Review Audience Member The Movie Info listed for this is incorrect. The story is about a man who never knew his mysterious and enigmatic mother (Zubeidaa) who was once a budding actress stopped short by an arranged marriage by her father. Before her husband divorced her, Zubeidaa produced one son (the one who's looking for her in the present tense). Not long after her divorce, against her father's wishes she starts dating a maharaja. When the maharaja wants to make her his junior queen, Zubeidaa's mother demands that she give up her only son to be raised by the grandmother. Zubeidaa stupidly agrees to do this and ends up as a concubine in a complicated and eventually unfulfilling marriage. I only wanted to watch this because it was recommended on Baz Luhrman's Red Curtain Trilogy. Ugh. This just dragged on and on. Zubeidaa was a spoiled brat and she should have played that up more. Not a good Bollywood Musical by any standards. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/20/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Zubeidaa

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Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Synopsis The East Indian actress (Karisma Kapoor) gives birth to a son and marries a prince (Manoj Bajpai) before dying in a car crash.
Director
Shyam Benegal
Producer
Farouq Rattonsey
Screenwriter
Khalid Mohamed, Javed Siddiqui
Production Co
F.K.R. Productions
Genre
Romance
Original Language
Hindi
Release Date (Theaters)
Jan 19, 2001, Original
Runtime
2h 33m
Sound Mix
DTS, Surround, Dolby Digital