Mohenjo Daro

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

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.

Ashutosh Gowarikar is a genius and you just cannot complain much about the direction. The sets and cinematography are top-notch which has made it a visual treat. The action sequences are very well executed. About the music, Mohenjo Mohenjo and Tu Hai songs create magic on screens. The background score is sheer brilliance and gives you goosebumps. About the performance, Hrithik Roshan undoubtedly has delivered one of his career best performance. He nails the character head on and proves that only he could have played such character. His transformation from a small former to a lover and then to a fighter is legendary.Pooja Hedge makes a good debut. You will fall for her innocence and grace at the same time. She makes a good pair with Hrithik Roshan too. But we wished to see her more in the film. The supporting cast is OK. As a whole, it's a brilliant movie. Go watch it.

Historical drama is not Bollywood's forte and it has never been treated seriously. Making a captivating historical drama, despite being fully factually correct, requires a great deal of unlearning and relearning, which Ashutosh Gowariker could not dare to do much for 'Mohenjo Daro'.

Making a film on 5000 years old Indus Valley Civilization, with scantly available research data, is a herculean task and it requires great labor and vision to make a compelling story out of it. Gowariker tried its best to deliver in every aspect of the film, but, unfortunately, he could not create a story as big as its characters and setting. He also did not shy away from falling in the trap of traditional Bollywood winning formulas i.e. run-of-the-mill romance.

The film is not a failure but the disappointments are too colossal to handle, especially when these come from the maker of films as great as 'Lagaan' and 'Swades'.

Hirithik Roshan, however, shines in 'Mohenjo Daro'. He has given one of the memorable performances of his entire career and has single-handily saved the ship from sinking. On the other hand Poja Hedge, the pretty girl with cute smiles, does not have much to deliver. Kabir Bedy, a very big name, could have done better if his character was not written in haste or without giving it shades and depth.

The background score of the movie, done by maestro A. R. Rehman, is breathtaking and epic in all senses. But the songs are ridiculously too modern to believe these could have been popular in 2016 BC.

The language is hard to understand fully, especially by Urdu speakers, but it sounds very powerful and great. Sindhu Ma (Indus river) takes center stage in the story and a huge thumbs-up for that, as this was one most satisfying experience in the whole film especially for the history lovers.

'Mohenjo Daro' is the first of its kind effort of making a film of this scale on the mysterious and very less known part of the human history. Either it succeeds or fails in impressing the audiences, it will be remembered as an effort of taking the road less traveled and telling less known stories.

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.