A disappointing tale of romance with absolutely no essence. Sowhat if the director had roped in some of the best of the techniciansin the film industry? So what if the director had managed to cast thebest of the actors available in tinsel town in his movie? So what ifthe previous works of the director were critically acclaimed and one ofthem had even got nominated for an Oscar? But What if the latestoffering from the director is only about style and no substance at allwith all the hype that was surrounding it. And What if such a moviedrags and drags for 3 hours and 20 minutes? Gawd!!!
If you askme about the movie, it is just a normal average movie made with a lotof grandeur. And if you ask me frankly if I liked it, it’s a big NO.Probably, because I expected a lot from the movie and my expectationsincreased as soon as some of the reviews started floating in the net.Ashutosh Gowarikar had initially directed a couple of commercial duds,but ever since Lagaan, he had been accredited along with the bestdirectors of India. Though his next venture Swades was not a commercialhit, it clicked because of its content. If Lagaan was about team work,Swades about patriotism, Jodha Akbar speaks about unity. Whatgoes wrong in JA is that though the message gets clearly conveyed inthe first one hour, a lot of unnecessary scenes add to the length ofthe movie and makes the message very bland. To add it all, there is alove song towards the end that could have been easily avoided. Some ofthe plots reminded me of the movies that came in the 80’s and early90’s : * An evil godmother instead of a step-mom. But theexistence of such a mother is recorded in history as well. It is theportrayal that goes wrong here.* A treacherous brother-in-law and at the end, the hero’s sister runs and pleas him to pardon her ‘suhaagan’. * Some of the characters eves dropping and leaking vital information at the most crucial points in the movie. *A person nearing death speaking for so long a time and seconds beforehis death the important characters of the movie coming in front of himfrom nowhere. Ifthe movie had the same cast and crew with a subject that takes place inthe modern era, it would definitely see the dust as the story and basicplot offers nothing new. The movie does have some of the bestmoments ever shown in Indian cinema. The scene where Akbar reveals tohis wife about his illiteracy, the song that appears when Akbar is inthe middle of a heated discussion, Akbar taming an elephant (theelephant looks small during the fight but after taming and when Akbarfinally mounts onto it, the elephant appears so huge!!!), the entiresong Kwaaja Mere Kwaaja (mind blowing music and picturization),Jodha-Akbars sword fight are some of them. The cinematography,art direction, dialogues, costumes and the music department has done afabulous job in bringing the 15th century alive on screen. However, thewar scene (only war scene in the movie!) could have been shot in a muchbetter way. The scene is a total let down and lacks the intensity of awar. But again, some of the shots of the palaces and the courts alongwith the BGM’s would make you speechless. So whoever watches a piratedversion would, for sure, miss the only best things that the movieoffers. Hrithik is simply amazing in the role of Akbar; one ofhis careers best performance. Each emotion, composed and controlled, iswell captured too. Aishwaryas as Jodha is good only at certain scenes.Otherwise, her performance is very similar to the good roles she haddone before. There is an eye color mismatch with the adult Akbar andJodha and with their childhood. A blooper of the first order. Also, nowhere in history, it has been mentioned that Akbar had two thumbs inhis right hand !!! The rest of the cast has only done what they usuallydo. Overall, watching J.A. is not something to die for. Neitheris it a time-pass movie, as the time doesn’t pass that easily here!!!Take your own time, check twice if you have anything better to do andonly then decide to spend your 3+ hrs. You also need the guts to see anemperor like Akbar trying to woo his wife all the time and somehow winher “Dil”.
