Movie Review: Jodhaa Akbar

“Hrithik Roshan playing Akbar?” was my first thought when Ashutosh Gowariker first announced his ambitious magnum opus Jodhaa Akbar. Now, nearly 4 years later, I gladly eat my words, because Hrithik Roshan as Jalal-ud-din Mohammed Akbar is one of the reasons that Gowariker’s fifth film, quite like his third and fourth, becomes the unforgettable cinematic experience that it is.

But Hrithik is just a cog in the massive machine that Gowariker’s masterful vision has assembled. It is an epic which is, at its core, a beautiful love story between not just a Mughal emperor and a Rajput princess, but a man and a woman. The film is well written, brilliantly shot and masterfully directed. Be it the impressive battle scenes or the ones depicting the sessions in the famous Diwan-i-Aam, each scene in this film is unforgettable, with the true classics being the interactions between Akbar and Jodhaa, as, slowly, one step at a time, Akbar is made to earn Jodhaa’s love and respect, which any man should have to do. The sword fight between Akbar and Jodhaa will, for me, go down as one of the best scenes ever in a Hindi film.

As mentioned earlier, the writing of this movie is top-notch, with the tight screenplay of the film supporting a story of inherently epic proportions. In particular, I would like to take my hat off to the idea that Akbar’s famous habit of moving amongst his people incognito had its root in a lesson that he learnt from Jodhaa. Also unique is the fact that for a change, amongst all of Akbar’s Navratnas, it is Todarmal who takes centre-stage in this story, as opposed to one of my all-time favourite historical characters, Birbal, who isn’t even mentioned in passing!

Technically, this film is nearly flawless. The cinematography is breath-taking and the production design is the absolute best. The editing is good, but the film should be trimmed a bit. The length is not really in issue, but certain portions in the movie are unnecessary. Special mention must be made of the songs Azeem-o-shaan Shahenshah and Khwaja Mere Khwaja. Their picturization adds an extra punch to A. R. Rahman’s compositions.

The performances in the movie are outstanding, with Hrithik Roshan bringing Akbar’s character to life. His posture, his expressions and his dialogue delivery are absolutely amazing. They say behind every successful man is a woman. I’d like to change that a bit to “With every successful man is a woman.” And in Akbar’s case, what a woman! The character of Jodhaa Bai is one of the best female leads in a movie in recent years. And Aishwariya Rai’s performance enhances it greatly. She has rarely expressed so well before, and proves that in the hands of a good director, she can truly do wonders. Also, she looks better in this film than ever before. The supporting cast in this movie has done a good job.

As a story teller, Ahutosh Gowariker impresses like never before. After watching Swades and Lagaan, I couldn’t help wishing that I had had a chance to tell those amazing stories in my own way. After this film though, all I could think was that I could never have told this story in this way. Jodhaa Akbar takes Gowariker one step further along the path to a special place in the annals of Indian film history.

So, for me, its 5 on 7 for Ashutosh Gowariker’s Jodhaa Akbar. Commercially, this film has the potential to take the ticket windows by storm. However, knowing how people tend to crib about long movies, I wouldn’t really want to predict the box-office fate of this film. But still, Jodhaa Akbar is truly a brilliant cinematic accomplishment by a fine film-maker. Whether this movie is fact or fiction is really of no consequence at all, because it is films like this that truly make cinema such a wonderful experience.