 Standing proud testimony to the heyday of Avadh, the reign of Asafutdola, is the Bara Imambara of Lucknow. Built to provide for famine relief, the monument eloquently narrates a glorious period of Indian history. The patronage of Asafutdola and the subsequent rulers of Avadh turned their capital into a cultural bastion of North India, a liberal and progressive modern society with subsumed all sectarian identities to forge a composite culture. Here was an oriental township that welcomed the new thinking from the west without cloning it. The erstwhile town of Lucknow, on the banks of the river Gomti, evolved into the bustling capital of Avadh, called Lucknow. By the time Avadh rose to prominence, British traders were beginning to find firm footing in India. Contrary to popular belief, these men were enamoured by the lifestyle led by the Nawabs and often tried to emulate it. However, as business plans transformed into imperial designs, a value system was imported from Europe and history began to be written with this coloured perception. This whole attempt to change Lucknow's identity to a quote-unquote dubious kind of respectability, this has actually eroded the foundations of Lucknow's culture. It was Muzaffar's film that captured Lucknow's rich culture on celluloid. Even for Indians, Umrao Jan was to become a window to Nawabi Lucknow. The courtesan, Umrao Jan Adha, has come to personify the gracious elements of this period, whose refinement patronised the liberal arts. Was evolved enough to accept women as equals and accorded the courtesan a position of respect and dignity. A century or more later, master filmmaker Satyajit Ray was to adapt a Hindi short story by the renowned author Premchand, delinating the epochal events that were to follow. In the post-colonial evolution of India, Begum Akhtar provided an emphatic validation for India's Seminole ethos of composite culture, an ethos that was proclaimed in the erstwhile avad and Lucknow.