Review of Heeramandi: Recall the moment when Sanjay Leela Bhansali attempted directing for the first time with the songs from 1942: A Love Story, the 1994 romantic film starring Vidhu Vinod Chopra. When Manisha Koirala’s brilliance levitated across luscious greens, celebrating love, romance, revolt, and freedom. Pyar Hua Chupke Se ends with a protest march for India’s independence interfering with her union with a lovely prince on a horse. Thirty years later, Bhansali and Manisha are back again with his inaugural show, Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar, to tell another story of political and personal liberation.
We are reminded of the two artists’ progress in developing their skill and forging their individual personalities in the Netflix India Original series. In the pre-Independence era of India, Manisha portrays Mallika Jaan, the madam of a brothel in the Lahore neighborhood of Heeramandi. The choice of Manisha, who starred in Bhansali’s 1996 feature film debut, Khamoshi: The Musical, lights on the screen with the immortal ballad Bahon Ke Darmiya, dances or sings hesitantly. The casting clicks. She is unwaveringly proud of her history, but she also feels quite entrenched in its grandeur. We can determine the life she has lived, the victories she has achieved, and the innocence she has lost with just one look or gesture. Heeramandi doesn’t need to follow a straight-line biography plot like Gangubai Kathiawadi since the Shahi Mahal is replete with traces of their history that appear from time to time.
