Jodhaa-Akbar - Almost a Masterpiece Powered by: Chakpak.com Jodhaa Akbar
I can understand how Ashutosh Gowarikar conceptualized Jodhaa-Akbar.A love story between two people - a Mughal King and a Rajput princess -whose marriage was purely for political reasons opens up immensepossibilities, especially when history books don't talk anything aboutthis. He must've thought that he could build a story about how twoindividuals separated by culture and religion fall in love aftermarriage. That is surely an imaginative thought. Only, the basicassumption here is that there was 'love' in that relationship in thefirst place. From what I have read about Akbar and his roving eye, itis very possible that love didn't even enter the picture. But Ashutoshhad made up his mind about creating an 'immortal' love story from thisrelationship that doesn't get more than two sentences in history books.Fair enough, for that is what creativity is all about. But how does one go about creating a love story for a man who marriedmultiple times and is believed to have had a harem of more than 300wives and concubines? Simple. Just ignore these facts. Ignore thatAkbar was already married twice before the Rajput princess came intothe picture (history books don't call her Jodhaa and even the filmstarts with a disclaimer...read my earlier posts about the stories told by the guides at Agra).Ignore that Akbar has been described as a "sexual predator", whose"sexual appetite had seemed insatiable" in his twenties, and whose eyes"fell even on married women". Ignore that "Akbar, for all hisintellectual refinements, was very much a ruthless medieval warloard,driven by earth hunger and blood thirst". If you want to spin a yarnabout pakeeza rishte (chaste relationships), it becomes necessary that the individuals forming that rishta are cleansed thoroughly of any vices – or seemingly negative traits - in their characters. Oh no, don't dismiss me as a purist who wouldn't want history to betampered with. I'm all for it, because history can be annoyingly boringand if one has to make a historical film it is imperative that someelements of fiction (at least some dramatization) have to be sprinkledthrough the screenplay. What is history if not an interpretationof what happened somewhere in the past? It might be based on tons andtons of research, but at the end of the day, it's still aninterpretation. A filmmaker has the creative license to interprethistory in his or her own way as long as it results in a compellingfilm. So what I mention above is not a grouse against AshutoshGowarikar, for he has surely made a good film. Just that I felt that hecould not make up his mind about what his focus should be. A love story in a historical perspective is a great idea, but thenarrative should keep its eyes firmly on one of the things: love storyor history. Here Ashutosh keeps jumping unsurely from one to other,such that there are times where too much stock is used up for eventsthat do not impact the Jodhaa Akbar story. I found the final climacticmoments completely superfluous. They did not add anything to the lovestory. It would have been a much better film had the film ended withthe beautiful In Lamhon Ke Daaman Mein song, which marks the culmination and consummation of the relationship between Jodhaa and Akbar. To give credit where it's due, Ashutosh has tried his best to weaveactual events and characters around the fictionalized romantic core. Ifelt it was a nice touch to create conflict between the lovers throughthe character of Maham Anaga, Akbar's wet nurse, because here is acharacter that history identifies as a conniving person who held Akbarunder her complete control. However, Maham Anaga is a much moreinteresting character than is actually depicted. Abul Fazal wrote,"….in reality the business was transacted by Maham Anaga…..to whoseknowledge and perspicacity the bridle for opening and closing allaffairs, political and financial, was…. entrusted at this time." Shewas the one largely responsible for Bairam Khan's fate, but that aspectis not shown in the film at all. Agreed that it would have made thisalready long film even longer, but that might have been more compellingto watch than the other historical sub-plots that Ashutosh Gowarikarchose to spend inexplicably long time on. And that would have furtherestablished Maham Anaga's character. I would have also liked it ifAkbar's first wife, Ruqaiya Begum, was shown in the film and AshutoshGowarikar had created an imaginary sub-plot around the sexual politicsbetween the two wives. That would have made the film even moreinteresting. The film really comes on its own when it focuses on the lead characters(played remarkably by Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan). Theymake the ideal Akbar and Jodhaa. And the chemistry between them is –for want of a better word - perfect. They are in complete control oftheir characters and even Aishwarya's worst detractors (and that's aHUGE number) cannot dismiss her performance as 'bad'. Ashutosh Gowarikar seems to be completely at ease while handling theromantic bits. Whether it's the scene where Akbar is being given animportant piece of advice by Maham Anaga and he is distracted byJodhaa's visage on the terrace, or the scene where he gets completelymesmerized by her bhajan and dismisses his assembly at the deewan-e-aam,or when Jodhaa learns calligraphy for Akbar only to realize that herhusband is illiterate, or that fleeting moment where Jodhaa catches apartial glimpse of her would-be-husband though the parting of thecurtain – they build up the love story in a great way. The pièce derésistance, however, is the picturization of the In lamhon Ke Daman Mein song. Can't get more passionate and romantic than that! It's the historical portions that the director struggles with. He triesto pack in more than he can chew. How can he not talk about Akbar'ssecular beliefs and people-friendly policies, when that's what everyoneknows him for? So a reference to the abolition of the religious taxes(the film only talks about the pilgrim tax and not the jiziya taxthat was abolished a year later) becomes mandatory. But the entiresequence of events that lead up to it – the Agra Bazar sequence – seemsto have been penned quite perfunctorily and tends to acquire asanctimonious, preachy tone. Akbar's affinity for mysticism is depicted in a brilliantly composed and choreographed sufi qawwali, Khwaja Mere Khwaja.At the end of this song, a divine ray of light hits Akbar and he goesinto a trance. One would think it is the writer's imagination creatingthis surreal sequence, but such an incident is actually recorded inhistory, although it is believed to have happened much later in hislife. Akbar had gone hunting when a similar incident happened where "amysterious divine call had descended on the emperor, which tranced himcompletely". Even though it has been used in a different context,Ashutosh Gowarikar deserves a whole-hearted applause for his research.I don't see anything wrong in using actual incidents in a differentcontext as long as it doesn't dramatically alter the reality. What doesn't work at all is the sub-plot about Akbar's brother-in-law.It has no role to play in the love story between Jodhaa and Akbar andthe climactic moments are way too formulaic for my liking. Surprisingly(I certainly did not expect this of Ashutosh Gowarikar), the handlingof crowd scenes, whether it is in the battle sequences or on thestreets is very tacky and amateurish. Crores have been spent on thecostumes of the lead actors, but the costumes of the extras seem likesomething out of a school play. Everyone seems to be wearing the samestyle of kurtas, with similar cummerbunds and headgear. Was it a feebleattempt at depicting 'equality' in Akbar's time, Mr. Gowarikar? Ifyou're making a spectacular, high-budget historical of epic proportionsthere can be no excuse for cutting corners. So, you might ask, did I like the film or not? I certainly did. Notonce during its long running time did I feel bored, in fact even whenthe film ended I did not want to come out of the Mughal ambience thatwas so faithfully created in the film. And that is certainly a commenton the quality of the film. The performances by and large are good, thesongs divine, cinematography mouth-watering and the art directionsimply superb. It's hard to believe that most of the film was shot onsets. If I have spent more time expressing my reservations about thisfilm, it's only because I wanted this film to be even better! It fallsjust short of a masterpiece it could have been.
