>From www.naachgaana.com Jodhaa-Akbar Review. Just came back after watching Jodhaa Akbar.
I loved Lagaan, it was a true masterpiece. I loved Swades more, because it was as good as Lagaan, and i could personally identify with it. Jodhaa-Akbar is about an alliance than turns into sweet fortune for the great King, Jalaluddhin Mohammad Akbar. The movie depicts the influence of Jodhaa bhai on his life and their love for one another. There's a transformation shown of the King from being a great conqueror to becoming the people's King. Obviously, i had high expectations going in for Jodhaa Akbar. But, unfortunately, the movie failed to hold my attention. It started off fairly well, the war sequences were nice, although copied from Troy and Patriot. Ofcourse a lot of people copy shots, but i didn't expect it from some one like Ashutosh Gowariker. After the war sequences, the next 20 to 30 mins were fairly dragging. And the script picks up once Akbar and Jodhaa finally meet. The sequences that follow their marriage are nice, and fairly entertaining too. But as the first half came to a close, i really felt like i was watching a well presented period TV serial about the typical saans-bahu (Ammayiyamma-Marumakal). Nonetheless, the interval situation does manage to re-evoke our interests, but then the problem gets solved very soon post-interval. One of the highlights of the film was the choreography of the song 'Azeem o shaan shehenshah'. It was fantastic. The second half of the film does make the film more presentable, but at the end of the day, no matter how much i tried liking the film, i just couldn't. Performances- Hrithik lived Akbar. Fantastic. Aishwarya, for the first time seemed natural, unlike Dhoom where she spoke like a misfit. She was good, and ofcourse beautiful. Music was one of the main reasons as to why i went for the film. ARR is King. Direction... fantastic at some points, stale at some points. The biggest drawback of the film was inconsistency. There wasn't a linear path that the script took. I feel for historicals, the most important thing is to simplify the story for the audience. Lagaan was a simple straight movie about great things. Troy had a clear story direction. Braveheart had a great structure. 300 had the simplest structure and was fantastic. Here's the structure for Jodhaa Akbar: -Starts of depicting Akbar as a conqueror. -The alliance deal comes in followed by marriage. -Love starts. -Story becomes a mother in law (surrogate) vs wife fight. -As we've seen in several serials and movies, the mother figure manipulates the son (akbar) against the wife. -Son thinks wife is cheating on him. Takes action. -He soon realizes mistake. Calls her back. -Then the story starts on how she influences him into becoming the people's king. -His final battle with the enemy. That's another weak point- The villain. He is inconsistently shown too. Obviously there isn't much space for him since they have to present the love story as well. The script seemed to stray aimlessly. Now here are the things i liked in the film: -The first war sequences. -The elephant fight scene. -First meeting of Jodhaa Akbar. -Hrithik and Ash have good chemistry in the following scenes. -MUSIC! -Azeem-o-shaan picturisation. -The funny scenes (kitchen episode, Mann mohana rendition etc.) were ok. There was a lot of computer graphics used especially in was scenes. Almost every frame initially had multiplied number of people. But it was good, except, before the love song 'In lamhon'. The graphics of the sun shine were extremely fake. It didn't suit the movie. The song also was picturised averagely. I was thinking, the song picturisation's motive and intensity was similar to that of Panchagni's "Saagarangale". Our panchagni didn't have the grandeur and all, but it was a million times more effective than this picturisation. Finally, i don't know if the north Indian audiences will be able to relate to the film more, but i couldn't. The dialogues were easy to decipher, but the movie was inconsistent, and that's its biggest drawback. I really don't think it has great chances at the box office especially due to its length. Ultimately, the movie had a contemporary nice message. It had its great moments, but it failed to hold my attention through out because the script and direction strayed aimlessly at certain points. Period films are the hardest to direct. When they're made, they better be made perfect. Because every small error will look big on screen. And that's exactly what happened to Jodhaa Akbar. If it was just another masala movie, i wouldn't have criticized it so much. But still, i thank Ashutosh for trying to give us something different again. Jodhaa Akbar: INCONSISTENT.
