Jodhaa Akbar : A late review. Review on Jodhaa Akbar

As usual I’m late with my movie reviews. Anyway here goes.

I won’t give the story as its widely known now. When I first that Mouthshut overall ratings were unexpected for this film, I decided to watch it.

Dialogues: Excellent, that’s the only word for it. Though a lot of Farsi was mixed in, and it made understanding difficult, the actors expressions made up for it. The dialogues were timely placed and delivered. 8/10

Music: What can I say? A.R. Rahman has done it again. All the songs are excellent. The background score will grip you from the first scene and take you for a ride throughout the movie. The melodies and the lyrics for the songs are impeccable. I specially recommend ‘Khwaja mere khwaja’ at a low volume with headphones to calm your mind. 9.5/10

Choreography: Though Hrithik didn’t get to show off his dance moves here, the only reason I mentioned choreography is due to ‘Azeem o shaan Shehenshah’. Not only is the song excellent, the choreography is one of the best ever. Putting on such a show with that number of people is commendable. It is a feast for the eyes. 9.5/10

Acting: No flaws there. Hrithik is at his usual best. Aishwariya puts up a decent performance and suits Hrithik well. Their on screen chemistry is good. The rest of the cast has also done a wonderful job. There are no exaggerated expressions or acting that irritates you. 7/10

Camera: A decent job, though it could have been better. The war scenes remind me of Mahabharat and Ramayana. Some places in the movie show a good deal of good performance with the camera. 6/10

Makeup and presentation: Flawless. The costumes, jewelry, set design merge perfectly together to give an extremely accurate picture of the Mughal empire. And having been to both Rajasthan and Agra, I can tell a well done job when I see one. Those who have been to Rajasthan and Agra will agree, I hope. 9.5/10

Stunts and Action. Could have been better. Way better. Even considering the relatively low budget the war scenes make the soldiers look like tired labourers. The elephant scene is a total rip off. 4/10

Flaws: Just when you thought that you were out of the woods, the flaws strike you.

The war scene deserves first mention. Hemu’s army was much larger than Akbar’s, but when they charge at each other, Akbar’s look bigger. The soldiers barely have any energy and fire in them. The elephants are sleepy. The swords and armors look totally fake.

Then there’s the song. Jodhaa sings a bhajan *and due to some strange reason, the entire *Diwaan-I-Am can hear it clearly.

The elephant taming scene is one where you’ll feel sorry for the old elephant. It looks like its about to cry ‘Momma’. It moves like a tame elephant, it stops when Hrithik shouts, it conveniently dodges Hrithik while attacking, and we’re supposed to believe that its wild. Hrithik jumps on the elephant and in 3 seconds tames it. I was expecting it to start purring.

The final battle was a scene where I was expecting something straight out of Troy since budget wasn’t an issue here. What I got looked more fake than WWE. The warriors went at each other like two school bullies. Watching a roadside brawl is more exciting.

The K effect is another thing to watch out for with the Saas Bahu rivalry showing part of it’s history. It basically adds 45 minutes of useless crap to the film. Glad that it was over quickly and no one had to get plastic surgery.

Overall, if you are a die hard Hrithik fan and can tolerate long movies, go watch it. It's a one watch movie. It’s better to buy the DVD and watch it at leisure.