Movie Review of Jodhaa Akbar. Review on Jodhaa Akbar

Director – Ashutosh Gowariker

Screenplay – Ashutosh Gowariker, Haider Ali and K.P.Saxena

*History

In the 331 years of Mughal Empire, The Indian Sub Continent went through Radical changes not seen in the previous 10000 years. With most years of the Mughal rule coinciding with the Renaissance period of Europe, it saw the construction of major historical buildings like the Red Fort, Taj Mahal, City of Fatehpur Sikir, the Agra fort etc but the most important aspect of the Mughal Empire was the use of modern war fare and weapons. The Mughal Rule saw the beginning and rise of Gun powder to be used as ammunition. The Era of Emperor Akbar was the golden era of the Mughal Empire with many tax reforms and secular rule which lasted nearly 100 years till Aurangzeb took reign in 1658.

Plot

After the death of young Akbar’s father, Humayun, Akbar is determined, under the guidance of his Army general Bairam Khan(Yuri), to end the rule of self proclaimed king of India, Hemu in the 2nd battle of Panipat. After Hemu is defeated and executed, Akbar, along with Bairam Khan decides to send messages to all the neighboring kingdoms to either give their kingdoms in alliance to Akbar or engage in warfare. With the mighty Mughal Army and the gunpowder as ammunition, they manage to win most of the kingdoms. Akbar(Hrithik Roshan) is now a young man whose ambition is to rule the entire country and expand his kingdom. His humane methods of giving respect to prisoners of war and not executing the King after defeat is not liked by Bairam. Akbar decides to have Bairam resign and take a pilgrimage to Mecca. The only hindrance comes when the King of Amber, Raja bharmal(Kulbushan Kharbanda) offers an alliance provided Akbar marries his daughter Jodha(Aishwarya Rai Bachchan). He offers this because his neighboring kingdoms have decided not to seek alliance with Akbar and Bharmal wants peace for his people. The alliance would ensure that Akbar wont attack Amber and will also protect it from the neighboring kingdoms. The concern is that Jodha is a strict Rajput Kshatriya Hindu and Akbar is a Muslim and the alliance would ire the clergymen from both sides. Despite strong opposition, Akbar marries Jodha. However this is just the beginning of a long political battle which has many twists and turns and how Akbar single handedly manage to overcome all of them.

Critic’s Comments

After the critically acclaimed Swades, Ashutosh Gowariker has given another well made movie although it would never match the standards of Swades. Hrithik Roshan has given a bravura performance as Akbar and although comparisons with Prithviraj Kapoor of Mugha-E-Azam Are inevitable, Hrithik Roshan has proved that given a good director and script, even the worst of actors can give a commendable performance. Aishwariya Rai Bachchan is strictly ok but the better performances actually come from Ila Arun as Akbar’s aunt Maham Anga. The cinematography by Kiran Deohans and the score by A.R.Rehman is good. The production design by Nitin Desai is a little too far fetched but comparable to international standards. Although there are lots of historical inaccuracies, this is a common factor for many historical films made world wide. The big question is, Should you go to watch that movie? The answer is Yes. Although parts of the movie seem like a rip off of Hollywood Epics(Gladiator in the start war scene and troy in the climax) and parts of it can be compared to the dud TV Soaps that come on Star TV and Zee TV, on the whole, the movie is much better than the usual trash we get in the name of Hindi Films. The only problem is, why was so much footage given to the love story of Jodha-Akbar and why was time wasted in Songs not used to show, if nothing, the 9 gems of Akbar’s court?

Psst –

1)       *The movie was conceived as an idea immediately after the release of Swades in 2004, it took Ashutosh Gowariker nearly 1 and a half year to research the topic.

2)       At Rs 370 Million, this was a magnum opus by any standards. The production design costed nerly rs 100 millions and the sets were designed in a studio in Karjat, more than 100 Kms away from Bombay. Amongst it were nearly 80 elephants, 100 horses and 55 camels.

3)       Post Production delay and injury to hrithik Roshan’s Knees and back meant that the release of the movie was delayed by nearly 4 months.

4)       So impressed was Ashutosh Gowariker by the Sets that he decided that it wont be demolished after the shoot but will be a tourist attraction for whoever wishes to visit the studios, on the lines of Universal Studios.

5)       The movie was released with over 1500 prints, highest for any Indian Movie but the multiplexes refused to screen the movie due to failure of profit sharing negotiations. The movie was finally released in multiplexes, a day after the regular Friday release.

6)        There were lots of controversies regarding the movie, specially with the name of Jodha. Historians have always claimed that the name of Akbar’s Rajput wife was never Jodha but Hira Kunwari aka Maan Kunwari. Gowariker later said that there were lots of version to that story and that Jodha-Akbar was his version of history.

7)       Although there were lots of historical inaccuracies, some of the scenes shown, did happen in real life. For eg, the killing of Adham Khan and Hemu happened exactly how it happened. Even the characters of Maham Anga was real.

Quotes*

1)       “Hum Hindustan ko galat haathi main aaney nahi dengey”

The Oops section is continued in the comments. Somehow MS is not letting me submit the whole review even though it is less than 7500 characters