The Taj Mahal is Akbar Khan’s magnum opus, it claims of some of most extravagant sets ever mounted, some of most of the exhilarating and spectacular battle scenes ever captured, some of the most lavish costumes ever made and the most expensive film ever made In India. He is like a painter who feel he is ready to make his masterpiece; to attain greatness; to join the league of the luminaries of the past. When he tries to make his masterpiece, he picks up his pain brush and with sweeping master strokes that are distinguishing of his vision and style, paints something that is beautiful, unique and idiosyncratic of him, but then he over-indulges himself and tries to exceed himself, obsessively and compulsively painting over and over it to attain the elusive standards of great artists, ending up turning what was initially beautiful, into something less and less beautiful, until it is no longer beautiful and the real painting and essence of it’s message is buried underneath the sheer ostentatious excess
For Akbar Khan however, the above analogy would fall short of his grandiose dreams, he not only tries to create a masterpiece, he tries a canvas that he lacks experience with. In fact it seems he is going straight for Michelangelo’s huge Sistine Chapel.
For the man who has directed the most well known television historicals; Akbar the great and the Sword of Tipu Sultan, which are renowned for their war sequences, the war sequences indeed are his distinguishing strokes and with collaboration with action director Shyam Kaushal(Asoka) and cinematic vision this time, creates some of the most spectacular battle sequences ever done anywhere in the world with grande crane shots with the camera swooping down on the battle fields 50 feet from the ground on the 3000 soldiers below clashing against each other amidst rain of cannon fire. Another action scene he does very well is the siege on the fort. Unfortunately, his skills only seem to be limited to this and everything else he tries does not gain that extra dimension of cinema and despite the resources available to him are no more lavish than his television historical and production values(withstanding action scenes) are shockingly poor even for television standards.
Sets and costumes are gaudy and tacky and are not helped by the overly bright lighting that completely destroys any perception of depth. The biggest blemishes are the special effects, they are painfully horrible to see and completely unnecessary.
In terms of storytelling and direction Akbar Khan clearly shows his inexperience and lack of command in working with the medium of cinema. He narrates the story in such a bland, uninteresting and uninspiring manner that you cannot really make a connection with the film and his staging of the scenes is completely outdated. The vast majority of the scenes are long dialogue scenes, and they tend to bore and it hampers it even further when they are spoken in chaste Urdu. I could not understand what they were saying most of the time.
The screenplay is fatally flawed; pacing is almost completely absent, almost every scene is dramatic and full of amateur theatrics that Devdas and Mughal-e-azam begins to look understated. Character development is very minimal and the narrative rather mishmashed. The crux of the story, the love story of Shahjehan and Mumtaz Mahel is underdeveloped and is further dilulted by concentrating on too many characters. What should come across as political intrigue, just turns into unending manic grins at the camera.
The songs are beautiful and well interwoven in the story especially ’’Ajnabee’’ it is shot against this surreal and absolutely gorgeous landscape of crystalline blue skies contrasted against almost golden sands. ’’Ishq Ki Dastaan’’ is very welcome after the scene after scene of hysterics and evil grins and provides an uplift to the film and the final song ’’Mumtaaz Tukjhe Dekha’’ is quite powerful. Yet while the songs maybe beautiful to look at, the lead pair does not inspire. When they look into each others eyes feigning love, their whole expressions just comes across as mechanical and the much trumpeted chemistry they share is as bland as Akbar Khans narration.
Sonya Jehan tries admirably to act, but unfortunately her face is so bland and wooden, she has a limited emotive range and gives few and repetitive expressions and is even shown up by Kim Sharma in the film. However, it is certainly not a bad performance and she does have some scenes later where she improves significantly. Zulfi Syed is much better, but like Sonya Jehan, he too seems to seems to learn how to act as the film progresses, only his learning curve is shorter and more fruitful. His later performances command attention. Yet you can’t help thinking that it’s as if you’re watching these actors learn to act in the film.
Pooja Batra as Noor Jehan is a discovery that may lead to an eventful career for her, despite having the most exaggerated, merciless and evil character in the film.
So to conclude, Akbar Khan attempted a masterpiece, but he lacks the necessary maturity and experience an artist needs before he can attempt his/her masterpiece and he also lacks the experience in cinema and the knowledge of cinematic grammar. Had he attempted to make this more of a war-epic, he may have made a good film, but by trying to deal with such a legendary love story without a firm handle on how to build up emotion and tension he makes a film that falls miles away from being realised. Nonetheless, I am going to recommend this film for if nothing else the battle scenes, the songs and Pooja Batra. It ends up being a glorified time-pass film.