Saw ‘Jodha Akbar’ last Sunday. A spectacular magnum opus is the most fitting adjective that comes to my mind to describe it. Ashutosh Gowariker has scored a hat trick and hit the bulls-eye once again. So what if ‘Swades’ was not a commercial success, it was definitely a superlative cinematic creation. With this film, Ashutosh has directed three of the greatest stars of today’s times – Aamir Khan, Shahrukh Khan and Hritick Roshan, and got the best out of each. He may truly be called as the hottest director of today. In this film, he has explored a completely different genre - that of a historical costume drama. If “Swades’ was absolutely contemporary, ‘Lagaan’ was set in the British era and ‘Jodha Akbar’ travels way back to the glorious Mughal era. Probably his next film will be set in mythological times! A few liberties may have been taken with history, but as we all know, ancient history is replete with differing versions of every event based on various interpretations, conjectures and hypothetical accounts. This film is not a history text -book that it needs to be accurate but only a fictionalised interpretation of an historical story. What is interesting is that Ashutosh chose to showcase the love story of Jodha and Akbar whose love is hardly the stuff of legends and never created history. We all know that Akbar was the greatest Mughal Emperor to have ruled India who had a Hindu Rajput wife but never knew anything further than that. Certainly they were no Laila-Majnu, Sohni-Mahiwal or even Shah Jahan – Mumtaz Mahal so as to inspire a multi-crore film around their love life. Now, perhaps the world will count them amongst the names of immortal lovers.
What I really liked about the film are these
The spectacularly snychronised and photographed war scenes full of thundering horses, elephants and camels.
The sizzling, fast paced sword fights with the reverberating sound of metal clanging with metal
The elephant taming scene
The superb casting especially of the lead pair. The film belongs completely to the lead players. It is really difficult to say whether anybody could have portrayed the roles of Jodha and Akbar better than Hritick and Aishwarya. Both these actors have put in everything they had into the roles. Hritick always puts his heart and soul into every character but Aishwarya doing the same is a refreshing revelation. Both look stunning and sexy as well as complement each other perfectly.
The subtle romantic flourishes – Aishwarya watching a bare-bodied Hritick going through a sword – fighting drill, Hritick longingly gazing at a sleeping Aishwarya, the first meeting of Akbar with Jodha where Jodha presents her conditions to Akbar before accepting his marriage proposal, their first night where Jodha does not let Akbar touch her, and many such scenes
The scene in which Akbar punishes MahaManga’s notorious son by throwing him of his fort twice so as to ensure that he is dead.This is how justice should be dispensed(even in today’s times).
The throbbing musical score.
No hint of melodrama or over-board charecterisation.
Spectacular photography, costumes and sets.
And some negative points
Not the length of the film. I am an avid film-buff and do not mind sitting through a good movie for as long as it keeps unfolding in all its glory. In fact, I never felt that the pace of the film slackened anywhere.
The Director could have introduced us to the famous nine jewels in Akbar’s durbar.
The tolerant Akbar had formed a new all-encompassing religion. No mention is made of this.
The film does not end at an appropriate point. It seems that the director ended the film when his financiers finally put down their foot and refused to shell another penny
One question - When Jodha sings a bhajan at Akbar’s lofty Agra fort how come it reverberates throughout the palace and is heard at every corner. Well, we know that palaces had excellent acoustics but this is stretching cinematic liberties too far, especially since this comes in a very significant scene in the story line.
Subhashish