His every muscle is pulsating on his broad back, and the camera focuses on the drops of sweat streaming down his arm. And a half-naked Akbar is practicing swordfighting.
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Jodhaa is watching from a corner, dressed relatively simply for once, perfect skin and glinting eyes all aglow. If you've seen this film, you know exactly the moment I'm talking about. The first: the moment when Jodhaa first has the hots for Akbar. They weren't necessarily memorable because they were great scenes, they were still, well, memorable.
The eye candy was broken up by the gorgeousness of the language: the pure Urdu of the Mughals and the elaborately perfect, Sanskritized Hindi of Jodhaa and her family were a treat to listen to, a huge break from the mishmash of modern Hindi and Hinglish that populates most Bollywood films these days.ĭespite being overall underwhelmed by this film that was supposed to be oh-so-overwhelming, and despite having to hang in there through the finish line with the patience of a long-distance runner, there were a few memorable scenes that I just have to point out. The second half picked up a little, though, as banal stories of apparent political intrigue turned more substantial, and Jodhaa and Akbar finally hook up. By the time the intermission came, the fatigue from the contrived plot and unconvincing characters was already palpable.
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Yet, you couldn't help feeling that this plot was ambling on, so slowly and aimlessly, with such an unconvincing series of events, that the eye candy got sugary-sweet pretty fast. Visually, one couldn't help but be captivated by all the eye candy. Hrithik made a shockingly formidable young emperor, and the grown-up princess Jodhaa, played by Ash, made one hell of a sexy swordsman. Before we knew it, the young king was grown up. The split-second shot of a man's head getting squashed by the mighty stride of a battle elephant seared itself into my brain. The opening scenes on the battlefield, depicting the advance of the Mughal army, were vast and impressive. Not exactly the Bollywood experience one would hope for, but I figured the unprecedentedly big-budget Bollywood flick starring Ash and Hrithik had to be entertaining, and I was just happy we caught its last showing. Besides us, there were just a handful of people. I caught the much-talked-about Bollywood smash hit Jodhaa Akbar on the very last day it was playing in Massachusetts. Today, I share with you my impressions of the much-touted hit film, Jodhaa Akbar, that's just about finished its US run this month. Questions? Comments? Write to her at back to Desi Dilemmas. Desi Dilemmas weaves together narratives, opinion, and research with Indians on three continents, to place common issues facing desis in a larger social and economic context. On August 2007, she joined Asia Pacific Arts. Smitha Radhakrishnan has been publishing her podcast Desi Dilemmas from Podbazaar since November of 2005.
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Clearly, even if he has done the smart thing and called his movie more imagination than history, the director wants to make doubly sure that he won't get more slammed than he already has, in the authenticity department.Smitha Radhakrishnan watches Aishwarya Rai and Hrithik Roshan's latest film and realizes that eye candy that lasts this long is too sweet.Ĭonnecting Personal Issues to the Big Picture
The altercations between hungry-for-power siblings and an emperor struggling to rule a fractious bunch of satraps, the discussions between Akbar and his wise men, the taking stock of his praja by a wise and compassionate ruler, the epic scale computer-generated battle scenes - are all observed at arm's length. A sword duel between them turns into a stylised mating dance, where breaths mingle yet lips don't meet.įor the rest, where history comes crowding in, Gowarikar keeps his distance. He takes us into their boudoir, where they lie next to each other, a gossamer net keeping them less than an inch apart: you can sense their yearning. And only in this moment, and others like this one, does Ashutosh Gowarikar's Jodhaa Akbar spark to life, because this is territory the director can traverse sure-footedly. You forget that these two are trying to be Shehenshah Akbar and his Mallika-e-Hindustan: this is a man and woman in the eternal act of finding love. Hrithik and Aishwarya are the hottest pair of lovers Bollywood has. He gazes at her, love-struck, as she blushes becomingly: the thing between them is electric. She lowers her eyelashes and says: ek patni apne pati ka naam kaise le sakti hai. After waffling for a couple of minutes, he returns the beautifully-inscribed parchment to her, confessing he can neither write nor read: he was raised to be a warrior, not a litterateur. She's written something she wants her husband to read. In a standout scene, Jodhaa Bai and Jalal-ud-din-Akbar are sitting across each other. Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai, Sonu Sood, Ila Arun