Akbar’s da dude by Vinayak Chakravorty Akbar, dude, you never seemed like a hunk in thepages of textbook history. Watching the biceptual beef that AshutoshGowariker unleashes by way of the greatest Mughal emperor ever, thethought is bound to pop up in your mind. If mainstream cinema is allabout conscious suspension of disbelief, we will grant Gowariker thatbit of cinematic licence. Let’s just assume Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbarhas been working on his six packs while we were busy watching HrithikRoshan in Dhoom 2. But then, forget all controversy over historicalaccuracy. Gowariker smugly dismisses all the raging debate over factand fiction right at the start, with a disclaimer which acknowledgesthat the love story of the Mughal emperor with a Hindu princess hasnever been clearly defined anywhere. The disclaimer also accepts thatthere are other versions of the romance, suggesting that his film isjust one of them. May be, there are various versions on how Akbarlooked too, and the Hrithik Roshan cut just suits his box-officeambitions. If Hrithik still makes a formidable Akbar despite lookinglike a dude at a lavish fancy dress party, it just proves he hasevolved well as an actor over the years. Also, the film is awell-scripted romance by writer Haidar Ali. Despite the inordinatelylong runtime, Jodhaa Akbar spawns enough highlight scenes to captivatewith the core premise it sets out to narrate — the love story of Jodhaaand Akbar, with an intelligent socio-political undercurrent. Gowarikerhas done justice in establishing his version of the romance as anoutcome of political needs of the era. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan asJodhaa looks — repeating the clichéd jargon for lack of a more apt word— gorgeous. Smartly, Gowariker gives her minimum dialogues all throughthe film. Rather, he lets Kiran Deohans’ camera wantonly play with herporcelain perfect face and eyes. To his credit, Gowariker has alsosuccessfully managed to eke out a certain chemistry between Hrithik andAsh. Since Jodhaa Akbar has primarily been hardsold as a romance,Gowariker could have gone a bit easy on the sheer number of charactershe crowds his screen with. Also there is too much happening on theperiphery, in what appears to be Gowariker’s bid to establish a commenton the circumstances that led to Jodhaa and Akbar’s union. Technically,this is a perfect film, one that celebrates the past with the rightcolours (Nitin Desai’s art direction is outstanding) and sounds (ARRehman and Javed Akhtar). Highlight scene? Watch Akbar enter atrance as a group of dervishes croon the majestic Khwaja mere khwaja.It’s a scene that epitomises the spirit of the film in all itssubtlety. It’s also Hrithik Roshan’s Mughal-E-Azam moment. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Jodhaa Akbar Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Sonu Sood, Raza Murad Direction: Ashutosh Gowariker HHH outtake Jodhaa Akbar is a well scripted romance. But director Ashutosh Gowariker could have gone a bit easy on the sheer number of characters he crowds his screen with.
