Jodhaa Akbar

There are good movies. And then there are great movies.But very few are truly epics. I can very confidently say that Jodhaa Akbar is going to be an epic.

Do not be daunted by the 195 minutes runtime of the movie. At no point in the movie will you be aware of the time. The performances put in by Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai,along with the ethereal music provided by A.R.Rahman and the stunning costumes by Neeta Lulla are going to blow your breath away.

No Indian cinema has ever evoked such a strong mixture of emotions in the audience as this one. Each and every frame of the movie is a treat to the eyes. There is richness and grandeur in every aspect of the film.

'Jashn-e-bahara' and 'Khwaja mere Khwaja' are superbly shot and executed songs. And then 'Azeem oh Shan Shahenshah' is one song that will remain etched in your memory long after you leave the theater.

The scenes where the Emperor Akbar tames the wild elephant and the sword fight between the royal couple are truly memorable. The battle sequences are captured very well.

The initial mistrust between Akbar and Jodha bai and the subsequent budding romance are handled brilliantly.

Hrithik is superb as the Emperor Akbar and I doubt if any actor of his generation could have handled this role as well. And Aishwarya Rai as usual looks stunningly beautiful.

All in all, a tremendous movie and I am going to strongly recommend this to all my friends.

Thank you Ashutosh for Jodhaa Akbar.

Ashutosh Gowariker's "Jodhaa Akbar" is the most ambitious film to emerge from Bollywood's stables in quite a while. Based on the historical alliance between India's greatest Mughal emperor and a Rajput Hindu princess, Gowariker models his film on the Shakespearean mould of palace intrigue with its collection of warring power brokers, plotting princes, distant queen mothers, bitchy but loyal eunuchs, and concubines galore. It's also something of a gamble: Gowariker has never treaded the historical epic in his earlier features, especially one about India's first attempt at religious pluralism. The results are mixed but laudable, largely because the script adheres to the golden rule about bringing historical episodes to film: know the history, but print the legend.

Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Pocahontas were all real people whose life stories have been told and retold in popular Hollywood films, each retelling adding and embellishing elements of the story which have helped the stories attain the status of pseudoreligious myth. India certainly has a rich history of quasi-historical legends: Anarkali, Heer-Ranjha, Umrao Jaan, Devdas, and now Jodhaa-Akbar.

Let there be no doubt: this is not a documentary nor do the filmmakers make any overt attempt at a documentary characterization of Akbar. History tells us that he was a unique and even megalomaniacal emperor: he had many wives and untold numbers of concubines in a harem which (depending on which account you believe) included a few male lovers, invented his own religion in which he was divine, and held court with atheists, Jews, and Jesuits, a practice which would become decidedly less common with future emperors.

Hrithik Roshan puts up what is probably his best performance as Akbar, though he is hindered by the sheer volume of activity making up the plot: an absent queen mother, sinister foster mother, devious brothers, and, above all, a reluctant wife, all demand his attention. Roshan is at his best when Akbar is wooing a banished Jodhaa and when he ventures off into his kingdom; in many ways, Akbar remains a symbol of tolerance and benign authoritarianism throughout—despite the fact that he is the one who sets much of the narrative's action into play, surprisingly few scenes give us insight into his inner workings; the opposite is true for Jodhaa.

In the last decade since Aishwariya Rai was introduced to movie-going audiences, she has grown tremendously as an actress. "Jodhaa Akbar" is not her best work, but it offers ample evidence of her growth along the spectrum of Paro-type roles she has enacted since Bhansalli's "Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam" : Nandini of "HDDCS," Paro of "Devdas," the eponymous Umrao Jaan, and now Jodhaa are essentially different interpretations of the same feminine archetype: a Lady Beloved of the Legends, who, having been robbed of all agency because of her gender, comes to embody beauty, suffering, fidelity, and, of course, love.

Nandini was a flighty romantic, Umrao Jaan a forlorn romantic, and Paro a languishing fool who settled for survival when love literally slashed her away. Jodhaa is decidedly not romantic, being that she is an emblem of her family's honor. She is given away as a peace offering to an emperor who demands alliance and submission only to find that he wants to become her ally in love.

Rai plays Jodhaa as a torn victim, but she is not without her own inner steel: she sets her own conditions for marriage, challenges palace customs, and steps on more than few royal toes along the way, notably those of the unforgiving Maham Anga. She's not as wishy-washy as Paro or as flirty as Nandini, but she is undoubtedly cut from the same cloth. And speaking of cutting, she's first rate in the five-minute sword fight between Jodhaa and Akbar, a scene which goes from swordplay to foreplay.

Rai is slated to play Anarkali opposite Ben Kingsley's Shah Jahan in an upcoming film and has yet another role as the pining courtesan in Bhansalli's next, "Bajirao Mastani." Normally, I would accuse her of self-typecasting, but it seems that filmmakers themselves are unwilling or unable to see her differently. Jag Mundhara did with "Provoked," extracting an emotionally naked performance from her which is without question her finest work to date. Will others be as daring to cast her in similar light? Probably not.

The film works best when the narrative focuses on the interaction between its two leads who are more similar than they perhaps ought to be: both are icons of physical beauty, sexuality, and glamour, but thankfully this has been tampered down by Gowariker's interpretation of the characters. True, Akbar probably didn't have Roshan's sinewy physique, and Jodhaa (whose existence continues to be challenged in certain historical readings) probably couldn't write in Arabic and likely never set foot in a kitchen. But such considerations are immaterial when you're telling a love story.

The other striking thing about the film is that for non-native Hindi and Urdu speakers, the dialogue is virtually incomprehensible without the subtitles. The old fashioned Urdu recitations are especially difficult to ascertain, though sometimes the subtitles only further your confusion. One line in "In Lamhon Ke Daman Mein" which is literally translated as "Beauty is imbibed in cherished blandishments." What???

Gowariker makes a valiant attempt at a film that is war epic, love story, and costume drama all in one, but never does "Jodhaa Akbar" approach the charm or finesse of "Lagaan." The main flaw with the film is that it is overly ambitious: Akbar may have been a polymath, but there's no way a single film could encompass all of his endeavors. Gowariker's script strays into too many quarters looking for the historical Akbar and ends up offering what is an unfortunately shallow characterization. Jodhaa, conversely, has less to occupy her and is more clearly defined.

And so in the end it turns out that "Akbar the Great" is, in celluloid terms at least, "Akbar the Pretty Good."

Greatest movie ever seen on the big screen!!The performances are nothing short of fantastic .Hrithik Roshan becomes Akbar and not once do you feel you are watching Hrithik on the screen. He is beyond brilliant and carries the film on his broad shoulders throughout. The way he emotes and delivers his lines shows that he is a super performer. This easily has to rank as the best performance of his career.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan matches Hrithik and delivers a wonderful performance as well. she looks ethereal — a compliment she has heard a trillion times before. What's new in that? But watch her emote in this film. Although she does not have as many lines to deliver or have as much screen time, she still makes you sit up and take notice of her through her extremely expressive eyes. She emotes superbly with them and it only enhances her performance. This will go down as one of her career best performances. Also, the Hrithik and Aishwarya chemistry is as flawless as ever. They sizzle every scene they are in together.

My advice to the audience is to not miss Jodhaa Akbar because doing so would be a huge mistake. It is a masterpiece and a definite must see. Don't miss it!

Fantastic movie by Ashutosh Gowariker! Amazing story plot. Great cast- Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan, Sonu Sood. Amazing music!! Definitely worth seeing. A great re-telling of story and setting for a great history. Though there's a huge controversy for the history part of the story (which the whole point of the movie really was), Jodha Akbar is an ideal, Disney-ish version of the history therefore making it an entertaining, romantic movie. I'll definitely watch it over and over again. An epic movie. A long-limbed story that is utterly simple in structure, but decorated with enough character interplay and side plots to keep the movie ticking over to a powerful finale. Loved it. Fantastic.

a mughal emperor discovers his love in rajput princess to whom he married just as result of an alliance. usually directors loose plot when they make a historic film in India but here ashutosh holds his point.the film although chooses a historical backdrop but main theme is to show that love exists beyond barriers and religions.so pin-pointing out historical inaccuracies in a movie like this will be unfair.

however, script had to be more strong.the convas is beautiful considering it's budget.And the more we talk about performances the less will it be because the performances are superb.HRITHIK ROSHAN is an actor with infinite expressions , especially in this movie his eyes speak more than his dialogues and most importantly it's not that easy to speak urdu with that emphasis.

overall if you plan to watch a movie with family it's a worth watch.it's perfect for your DVD collection.