Reported By:
| Edited By: Johnson Thomas |Source: |Updated: Nov 19, 2013, 11:17 PM IST
Jodhaa Akbar
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan
Direction: Ashutosh Gowariker
Rating: ***½
Let’s get one thing straight. . . Jodhaa Akbar is not a history lesson as the director makes amply clear in the first few cards.
It is also not one of those films that call for a suspension of disbelief. It is a romantic tale set in the 16th century about one of the most benevolent emperors of the Mughal era, Akbar (Hrithik Roshan), and his strategic-alliance wife, Jodhaa (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan), the feisty and independent-minded daughter of a Rajputana king.
And for those who like their stories spiced up, there’s palace intrigue, conspiracies and their dramatic denouncements, epic-scale battle scenes and also, to keep TV serial watchers engrossed, there is a mother-in-law from hell.
It is grand no doubt: grand in vision, writing and execution (Haider Ali, Ashutosh Gowariker), perfect in production design (Nitin Chandrakant Desai) and regal and luxurious in costume and jewellery (Neeta Lulla).
With some wonderfully restrained and accomplished acting on the part of the huge star cast, including those in bit roles (Sonu Sood, Ila Arun, Nikitin Dheer); Jodhaa Akbar is a spectacle that befits the period and the people it portrays.
Straightaway you are introduced to the young lad who will grow up to be Akbar. Battles are fought and the kingdom is expanded in his name but he is a boy who will not humiliate a vanquished foe and grows up to be humane, just and tolerant.
When he is offered the daughter of a Rajput king in a peacekeeping alliance, and he realises that she will not let him touch her till she is in love with him, he sets out to win her heart with a touch so light it beats the heavy panting love of today, hands down.
Though the love story is at the core of the film, the progression of which gives the film its more beautiful moments, it does not in any way impede the flow of several parallel tracks involving the politics of the time—be it in the Mughal empire or the Rajputana kingdoms. In fact, it is in the way the several strands come together that Jodhaa Akbar achieves its epic scale.
Several scenes stay in your memory once the 200 minute film is over. The highlights include the battle scenes, the one in which Akbar single-handedly trains a rogue elephant, the sword scenes between Jodhaa and her brother and later Jodhaa and Akbar, the food preparing scene in which Jodhaa makes a vegetarian meal for the court despite differences with Akbar’s surrogate mother (Ila Arun) and the scene in which Akbar comes to Jodhaa’s maternal home to take her back after a misunderstanding.
But the one that stays uppermost, if nothing else for sheer eye-candy value, is that of Akbar’s bare upper body as he practices his sword fighting in which the camera lovingly lingers on and captures every muscle and sinew of his perfectly toned and classically sculpted body. Because this is shown just once, it leaves even more of an impact.
Most of Jodhaa Akbar has been shot on sets created by Nitin Desai and its detailing and opulence are sights to behold. Lighting these up, (cinematographer Kiiran Deohans), especially when the vista was large, must have been a logistical nightmare but the end result is spectacular yet wonderfully unobtrusive.
AR Rahman and Javed Akhtar collaborate on the music, which produces some gems like Kwhaja mere Kwhaja, Shahenshah, Jashn e bahaaraa and In lamhon ke daaman mein. These might not exactly be hummable in another context but work wonders in the film.
Jodhaa Akbar is a fitting follow-up film to Lagaan and Swades and shows once again the honesty and perseverance director Ashutosh Gowariker brings to whatever he does. Making a period film would be considered foolish by riders of the entertainment bandwagon but Gowariker, having set out to buck the system, leaves no stone unturned on any level be it the actors, sets or the scope of the film. One just wishes he could have been more liberal with the editing scissors and trimmed the film by 30 minutes more.
Several new talents match their histrionics with the lead actors and acquit themselves adequately but the film really belongs to Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. Aishwarya looks ethereal and acts convincingly too but it is Hrithik who steals the show from everyone. He is absolutely brilliant as the vulnerable lover, the benevolent emperor, the swordsman and the fighter and more than worth the price of the ticket.
