Film Review: Jodhaa Akbar By
HETAL ADESARA
16 February 2008, 08:25 PM Film: Jodhaa Akbar
Director: Ashutosh Gowarikar
Producers: United Motion Pictures, Ashutosh Gowarikar Productions
Cast:Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Poonan Sinha, Raza Murad,
SonuSood, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Suhasini Mulay, Nikitin Dheer, Raza Murad,Ila
Arun
Cinematography: Kiran Deohans
Dialogues: K.P. Saxena
Art Direction: Nitin Desai
Editor: Ballu Saluja
Rating: 2.5/5
Ashutosh Gowarikar’s magnum opus Jodhaa Akbar can be called that as far as the
movie’s length is concerned.
Thelead cast, comprising Hrithik Roshan (Jalaluddin Mohammad Akbar)
andAishwarya Rai Bachchan (Jodhaa Bai), does a great job and both fit
likegloves into their royal characters.
However,Gowarikar goes wrong in terms of the length of the movie (3 hours
20minutes). One can relentlessly argue that Lagaan was longer in durationthan
Jodhaa Akbar but then Lagaan was Lagaan and the climax made itwell worth the
wait. However, this does not hold true for Jodhaa Akbar.Gowarikar goes into
unnecessary depths and sub-plots barring which, themovie would have been a
treat to watch. On the other hand, some crispediting from Ballu Saluja could
have worked wonders for Jodhaa Akbartoo.
Setin the sixteenth century, Jodhaa Akbar is about a marriage of alliancethat
gave birth to true love between Mughal Emperor Akbar and a Rajputprincess
Jodhaa.
Afterwinning kingdom after kingdom, Akbar also manages to win the allegianceof
the most belligerent of Hindus - the Rajputs. However, a conditionwas put to
him that he would have to marry Jodhaa - the daughter ofAmer’s Raja Bharmal
(Kulbhushan Kharbanda).
Themovie traces the early marriage life of Akbar and Jodhaa. What beginsas a
mere marriage of convenience finally culminates in love betweenthe two but not
without twists and turns (some even of the saas-bahunature). Case in point is
when Maham Anga (Ila Arun), who has beenAkbar’s caretaker since his birth,
plots to bring about hatred in hisheart for Jodhaa and succeeds.
Interms of direction, some of the scenes in the movie were executedbrilliantly.
Worthy of special mention is Hrithik’s fight scene withthe elephant and almost
all the sword fighting scenes.
Onthe other hand, the battle scenes were shoddy and badly executed. Thenagain,
the least said about computer graphics and visual effects, thebetter. The CG
used in the war background, army, the battle etc lookedphony and gave a bad
overview of the scene. The special effects toowere nothing to write home about.
They went from bad to worse speciallyin the bedroom scene with the backdrop of
the sun set where Akbarfinally asks Jodhaa if she loved him.
Thefilm’s prerequisite of grandeur was met by art director Nitin Desai toa
great extent. However, the forts and palaces’ exteriors lookedblatantly fake
sometimes. The interiors, on the other hand, were richand vibrant and grand.
The film’s music is its high point.AR Rahman’s tunes blend perfectly with the
mood of the film. The songsare mesmerizing specially Khwaja Mere Khwaja.
However, the choreographyand picturization of the song was way too mechanical
barring Hrithik’s30 seconder. Another song worthy of note here is
Azeem-o-ShaanShahenshah.
KiranDeohans uses the camera well. While most shots were well captured, waytoo
many close-ups of character artists were a sore point. Dialogues byK.P. Saxena
were satisfactory. The script (Ashutosh Gowariker andHaider Ali) could have
been tighter with additional focus on the film’slead characters since the story
does revolve around them.
HrithikRoshan’s performance is par excellence. Whether as a king who
finallywants to take matters in his own hands, or a husband admitting to
hiswife that he doesn’t know how to read or write, or even as a warriorfighting
a battle… he emotes well.
AishwaryaRai Bachchan is beauty personified. As the elegant yet fiery
Rajputprincess, Aishwarya is simply brilliant. This is definitely one of
herbetter performances till date. The chemistry between the two ispalpably
obvious and well captured. It works. However one has to waitinterminably long
to see romance finally brewing between the two.
NikitinDheer as Akbar’s brother-in-law Sharifuddin Hussain does a good job
forhis debut film and is worthy of mention. He fits the characterperfectly and
delivers well. Sonu Sood as the restrained RajkumarSujamal is yet another
delight to watch and does justice to his welletched out character. Kulbhushan
Kharbanda (Raja Bharmal) and RazaMurad (Shamsuddin Atka Khan) are okay.
PunamSinha (Mallika Hamida Banu) is adequate in her performance. Arun doeswell
as a possessive and scheming mother and evokes the feeling ofhatred towards her
character. Suhasini Mulay as Jodhaa’s mother RaniPadmawati hams all the way.
She has a smile fixated on her face whetherthe situation demands it or not.
Consider this, Jodhaa is upset thatshe is being married off to a Mughal
emperor; Rani Padmawati hands hera bottle of poison and asks her to consume it
if she’s not happy withthe wedding. In this emotional and traumatic moment,
Suhasini Mulay hasa smile pasted on her face. What was she thinking?
To cut a long story short, Jodhaa Akbar works only for it lead actors'
performances and Rahman's music.
