Review: Jodhaa Akbar [Blast from Past]

BLAST FROM PAST: With AOL shutting shop, most of my reviews went offline. While I did not really save all of them, I still have quite a few in my sent mails. So, here on for sometime I shall be posting reviews that i wrote while I was still with Sanskriti Media.  

** Note: UNEDITED versions. And really early samples of writing... times when Vineeja Suresh, my colleague, would shout at me to improve. Hopefully I did in due course!

** Starting with this one as this is one of the first reviews of my mine that was quoted by lot of websites. Plus of you can't really miss the timing. Ekta Kapoor has launched her TV show called Jodhaa Akbar!

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Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Sonu Sood, Punam Sinha, Ila Arun, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Suhasini Mulay, Rajesh Vivek, Nikitin Dheer

Director: Ashutosh Gowariker

Producer: Ashutosh Gowariker and Ronnie Screwvala

Cinematography: Kiran Deohans

Music Director: A R Rahman

Rating: **** 4/5

While only last week we had one of the shortest films of recent times, this week sees the release of the longest film in a few years. And if we ever argued that longer films are unable to hold you to your seats till the end, Jodhaa Akbar surely proves that wrong as it manages to keep you glued to its opulence for over three hours and twenty minutes!

Jodhaa Akbar - a tale from history, with obvious mixture of fiction to enhance the romance is one of the best films in recent times, from every point of view. And it clearly shows that historical dramas – unlike what have been said of – grab your fantasy to such extent that you would never utter a word even if it means that sitting for so long actually gives you a backache! But you got to give the filmmaker this freedom as telling a romance from history would mean he had to keep other tracks of history in place too. So while a normal love story would take a stipulated time to develop and fold up, a Jodhaa AKbar genuinely needs more time to develop keeping in mind that situations just cannot be created for the heck of it – they have to be timed!

JODHAA AKBAR

Quite evidently, the story is about Jalaluddin Mohammad Akbar (Hrithik Roshan) and Jodhaa (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan) – how they are married and how the emotion of love develops over at time to influence each other. What's interesting is the way the director decides to show it. While other historicals would primarily talk about war and state into which love is embedded, Jodhaa Akbar is a love story more than anything into which history has been fitted. Akbar and Jodhaa come together after a marriage alliance between the Rajput state of Amer and the Mughal Empire. And while there is the initial awkwardness, the soon start understanding each other to fall in love.  

The story evolves slowly with loads of memorable scenes sprinkled every now and then – like Akbar trying to tame an elephant, AKbar and Jodhaa swordfight, Akbar practicing bare bodied as Jodhaa as Jodhaa admires him secretly, Akbar going to Agra Bazaar as a commoner and of course the war sequences. The last scene when Akbar fights the monstrous Sharifuddin Hussain is also legendary material. There is a fine intermingling of humour as the love story develops. However there are a couple of songs which makes the pace go for a toss. The dialogues are well written, as the Mughal speak in Urdu and Rajput speak in Hindu.

Technical, the film has some of the best shot scenes in Hindi cinema. The war scenes for example are brilliant. The brilliance is of course helped by the fact that the director has actually chosen to use hundreds of people rather than morphing!

The editing falls prey to the love of shots as the fail to keep out scenes which could have been left out, or at least shortened. That could have helped the film's length too. The background sounds and score is superb and the playback which is not half as good as a standalone gives meaning to evolving emotions. The choreography of the song 'Azeem-o-Shaan Shahenshah is a treat.

The film sees Hrithik coming up with a performance which cannot be compared to any. There is much talk if he would be able to repeat the Akbar played by Prithviraj Kapoor. But such comparisons won't make sense as Mughal e azam showed Akbar as an old grey haired man while here Akbar is in prime youth and is in love himself. Hrithik is sparkling! And so is Aishwarya, although the film does not give her much dialogue. She does well where she is required and to top it, she looks as pretty as anyone could be. So much that every time she comes on screen your heart misses a beat! The chemistry between the two protagonists is awesome. Sonu Sood is average while Ila Arun comes with a performance which is her best. The rest chips of the humongous star cast chips in with some noteworthy stuff.

Overall with Jodhaa Akbar, Ashutosh Gowariker has proved that he is one of the best filmmakers we have today. While your heart beats for the love between the two protagonists the film leaves you at such heights of emotions that you would literally be shaking with excitement!  The film also comes a very right time as Akbar indeed could be a role model for people and rulers today. The king not only had a secular vision but also a will to know what the common man wanted, apart from being kind hearted and nobel. But the word of advice would be to get more detached from what he has shot and try leaving out more. After all, cinematic pleasure is not every thing. Back ache and stiffness got to be addressed to!

PS: With Jodhaa Akbar, Gowariker clearly hold the record of making three of the longest films in this decade! However this is in fact his shortest movie since Lagaan. And yeah, there is no guest appearance in Jodhaa Akbar but Gowariker gets his favourite voice – Amitabh Bachchan for the narration.