Mohenjo Daro

If you had to recreate an ancient civilisation, what would you do? If you are Ashutosh Gowariker, and have had lots of experience in excavating the past (Lagaan, Jodhaa Akbar), you would scale it up. Instead of a few hundred years, you would go back a couple of thousands, ditching the merely old for the seriously antique.

Mohenjo Daro, set in Mohenjo-daro of the Indus Valley civilisation, is bigger but certainly not better than these two Gowariker's earlier outings. The sepia tone of the earth and the dwellings is balanced by an array of costumery: everyone looks like they have been handed out unstructured earth-toned garments, which follow the latest fashion du jour. And lest you thought they were not accessorised to the hilt in 2016 BC, perish it: the villainous chief wears a headgear of horns (the happily hamming Kabir Bedi, who carries it off with a raffish air) to an alarmingly tall crown of what looks like feathers, coins and shells sported by the leading lady (the debutant Pooja Hegde, who looks much better without, and may fare better in her next).In between is leading man Hrithik Roshan as poor indigo farmer Sarman, a resident of village Samri of the Sindh province, who has set his heart on going to neighbouring big town Mohenjo-daro. That is where, he is convinced, lie his fate and fortune, and an animal with one horn.Right from the build-up, featuring what is meant to be a thrilling boat ride and a fight with a fake-looking crocodile, all the better to show off Hrithik's rippling chest and ripping valour, Mohenjo Daro is a plod, and a heavily borrowed one to boot: the entry into a forbidden town (which strongly reminds us of Baahubali), the romance with a pretty stranger, the rivalry with a muscle-bound fellow, the unravelling of dark secrets, the saving of a town from a beastly ruler—we've seen so many versions of it before.It beats me how so much time and effort can be spent on creating something meant to be jaw-dropping, but which leaves you sighing at the sheer waste of it all. Just when you think the plot is shifting just a fraction, out pops yet another item number, complete with whirling dervishes (remember Jodhaa Akbar?) and belly dancers: how can you have a Hrithik film without getting him on the floor, even if it is daubed in mud?In Lagaan, there were the evil Brits who wanted more tax from the poor 'gaon-waalon'. In Mohenjo Daro too, along comes the demand for more 'kar-vasooli'. Gowariker also filches from the many Hollywood epics which dump their heroes into an arena and have them fight for their lives: Hrithik faces off with two iron-chested cannibals (Bedi terms them, helpfully, 'narbhakshi') who grunt and growl.

And just in case we were missing something, Sarman does a Noah, launches a massive rescue op, and saves scores of humans and animals, to swelling background music. By then, we're so exhausted that we let the waters of Sindhu Ma float over us, and wait for things to get over.

It's not really bad. But not very good neither. The crocodile is playing really good, very good actor! The unicorn also he plays well. The horses are OK too. I do not want to hurt the humans so... Kabir Bedi was much better when he was younger and even more beautiful in "The Black Corsair"Il corsaro nero(original title)(1976) and "La tigre è ancora viva: Sandokan alla riscossa!"(1977). Pooja Hegde is pretty. The girls dancing on her side are even sexier. Hrithik Roshan he does what he can do. The music and dances are beautiful. If you got nothing else better to do or you are like me and you want to watch all the movies in the world... Seriously now, watch any film by Fellini, Sergio Leone, Antonioni, Bertolucci, De Sica, Monicelli, Risi, Pasolini, Elio Petri, etc.

Just finished watching a pirated copy of this anal travesty. Slumdogs cannot create art. They just can't. My blood is boiling, I can imagine someone paying a 150 odd bucks to sit through it. God where does one even begin.

Hrithak can't act for *beep* Like he has that one "aura" in every film I've seen of his. The brooding angry man about to burst like a bubble, or the doey eyed love struck dancing moron. Nothing else. This guy should be blacklisted from showing his face to me. But of course an actor can only do what-I-or us directors want them to do.

Ashu-tosh "Sir" seems to be aping Star Wars A new hope what with Cambell's Hero Journey template but like 95% of Indians(myself and a few on here I feel excluded) he simply copy pastes the process and commits the cardinal sin of "Indianizing" it. Which means they could've have shot this in the backdrop of 2016 Dharavi and it wouldn't matter. Boy sees girl, falls for her, stuff happens around them, the end. Except it takes 9 Godawful hours(or so it felt) to get to it.

Opening scene pretty much sums up the ordeal. Our immortal lad fights the fakest looking alligator ever put on cinema. Seriously folks, right then and there I looked t my friend and we both had to go buy 3 quarters of Old monk. I mean Lake Placid had a better croc and when was that-1997?, heck, Khoon Bhari Maang had a better animal. Couldn't they like work on the CGI one bit? What the hell goes on in India? I mean at the rolling credits of most Hollywood films I see the Indian drones names fly by....They have all the animation studio here and this is what you get? Same thing with Baahubali....terrible, terrible CGI(as opposed to the gorgeous real locations and sets). Don't they have a rough *beep* screening in this town? More IMPORTANTLY don't these c**k sandwiches realize that showing less is more. Nothing inspired from John Carpenter's innumerable films or Jaws. They could have just shown the tip of the alligator, as they usually appear in real life- and made a great scene out of it. The Alli jumped a few metres😥

Anyho, after killing the reptile he returns home to his village....I'll give them this the practical locations are good. It looks and feels good. There they indulge in the most boring putrid diatribe ever put on screen. Heck, I don't even remember anything of it it was that bad. We meet his obligatory sidekick whose there to explain things and follow Hercules around like a *beep* fat drone. The fat *beep* Hercules has a dream where he seems a Unicorn, but wait....it doesn't look like a horse, more like a pony or sheep(seriously look it up), so its a sheepricorn. It looks at Hercules and now he wants to go to the Holy fable land of Mohen-Jo- Daro. Luke Skywalke, err, I mean Saram(or something similar) decides to go on his Hero's Journey and after some *beep* CGI(really guys the CGI here is terrible, its not even so bad its good). they reach the promised land. What happens next is a daze because I became too drunk. But there's literally nothing happening. Nothing at all. The chick is cute but she cannot act. There is a CGI panning shot from a window to the whole panorama of the city and even on a small screan we couldn't help but cringe, image the terror from the audience POV.

There is a arena battle scene lifted(well sort of, if you can even call it an effort) from the Star Wars prequel and Gladiator except in this case our Hero is victorious when it really doesn't seem like it can happen. Not in this Universe or any other.

The end is again a cheesefest where some river floods the city(I haven't done a lot of reading but is this true or they just made it up) and it is the fakest sickest bunch of scenes put together. Seriously amateur stuff guys. There are exactly 7 cows(guess they couldn't afford after paying Krish his 40 crore) which are repeated in every scene. One scene where Hercules/Mind reader actually tames 3 horses. They're never seen again. These are just minor quibbles and there are a lot of these. Is this the same guy who directed that legendary masterpiece "What's your rashi" with Hercules clone? That film is a masterpiece compared to this travesty.

Don't these guys have script readers, some people who question the product except just Hero worshiping the actor and the director? I hope the film sinks faster than the city did.

Mohenjo Daro was one of my most anticipated movies of 2016, and well, it wasn't good. This is probably the most disappointing movie I've seen all year unfortunately. Even though it's directed by the great Ashutosh Gowariker, it has so many problems that make it a very disappointing movie.

As always, I'll start with the positives. Hrithik Roshan is great in this role and by far the best part of the movie. Pooja Hegde is good as the female lead and I can see her as a future Bollywood star. A. R. Rahman's music is phenomenal and certain action scenes were done well. That's about it.

My biggest problem with the film is that it doesn't know what kind of movie it wants to be. There's so many story-lines that are left hanging by the end of the film. The plot is so muddled and somewhere in there is a good movie with a good story. Kabir Bedi as the villain is pretty disposable but his character's son is even worse. The last 30 minutes of the movie are a complete awful shoehorned in subplot trying to make Hrithik's character looking like Noah and Moses.

Overall, Mohenjo Daro is an extremely disappointing movie and wasted potential. This could have been another masterpiece for Gowariker but it is a mess of a movie.

Mohenjo Daro gets a D.

Ashutosh Gowariker has again come up with an interesting theme, but too bad, the execution falls through.

Sarman (Roshan) is an inquisitive farmer-cum-merchant who travels to the city of Mohenjo Daro to sell his yields against the wishes of his well-wishers. He is an outspoken and courageous fellow who enters the city, sells his first batch, and immediately falls in love with Chaani (Hegde), a princess of some kind who is widely known in the city to be a ray of hope for the citizens. Chaani reciprocates and Sarman pledges his alliance of love. However, Chaani's hand in marriage has already been given to Moonja (Singh), heir of the crown which is currently held by the dark-eyed, evil Maham (Bedi). Soon Sarman gets embroiled in the city's merchant market and becomes the voice of the poor against Maham and Moonja, the evidently autocratic rulers. His love for Chaani gives him power and helps him avenge a hidden truth and save the entire civilization from an inevitable flood.

The story is clichéd, no doubt about it. But, even the arcs that take the running time to about 150 minutes, are muddled with clichés and usualness. What an average viewer would expect from a theme like this is some novel insights into how the civilization worked, its market, its people, its culture. But, all we see is mockery of the civilization; introducing a unicorn and basing your cultural dance on it is not the way to go for a historical film. I personally do not know much about the city other than what my grade X history books taught me, but I was expecting something else - not 21st century AD in the disguise of 21st century BC.

The reason I rate this a 5 is because of the action sequences, the production setup, and an average execution. It's very clear that the writers did less-to-no research for this film, or they purposely tried to mix fictional romance into a topic held sacred by so many. Otherwise, it would have been a much interesting watch.

Roshan and Bedi perform well among the cast. Hegde should take more acting lessons. Music is not exhilarating and neither is the CGI. That's it; not much to talk about.

BOTTOM LINE: Ashutosh Gowariker's Mohenjo Daro is a disappointment; but we were warned, weren't we? Wait for TV premiere.

Can be watched with a typical Indian family? YES