The Jodha Akbar Review
One of my closest female friends said after a solo theatrical tryst to watch Ashutosh Gowarikar’s Jodha Akbar that one of the best trends in Indian, Hindi films is the cinematic exploitation of the Indian, male physique. Her exact words were, “ Hrithik rocks” and that succinctly reviews his role in the Jodha Akbar movie.
Despite the public clamor about controvertible facts in Ashutosh Gowarikar’s Jodha Akbar the most obvious counterfeit faux pas is Hrithik Roshan’s Akbar sports a retro-modern hairstyle throughout the epic; But then again gala authenticity has a place and I am glad it is not covering hair on Roshan’s chiseled, beautifully handsome face.
Roshan’s haircut notwithstanding, the movie scores 2 stars for the costume drama that is requisite for a period movie and a special half a star goes towards the jewelry designers of the movie. According to sources, 80 handpicked designers coordinated by Tanshiq assisted in the development of the adornments for the epic (jewelry addicts & admirers alike note that Tanshiq has made the Jodha Akbar collection available for viewing and purchasing).
The casting and acting are superb. Roshan submerged himself into Akbar and eliminated the delineation between the actor Roshan and character Akbar resulting in a superb performance. Rai’s acting as Jodha is competent. Rai has the requisite celestial beauty to act the princess (Devdas and Hum Dil De Chuke) with the perfect combination of restraint and regal aura. Why directors create physical action scenes for the former Miss World baffles and bothers me. To quote another friend (who hated the movie), “she fights like a girl.” Rai can’t play the athlete (Dhoom 2’s basketball scene with Roshan was a debacle) and when she is playing the role of the Empress of Hindustan, the viewers shouldn't’t have to suffer through her half-baked posturing as someone with an athletic ability, she is just not a good enough actress to pull off a fencing sequence.
IIa Arun playing Mahan Anga (Roshan’s nursing mother) deserves distinguished distinction for her role as monster-in-law antagonist. She plays the character with the perfect combination of self-aggrandizement and subtlety.
Unfortunately this is where the praises end. The real problem with Jodha Akbar is that the audience is trying to grapple the focus of this tale. Is it the unexpected love between Jodha and Akbar resulting from a highly political move made by an ambitious Mughal Emperor? Is it a general account of Akbar’s rule? Or is it symbolic telling of how Emperor Akbar courts provincial Hindustanis with the same patience and love he courts his Hindu bride? The answer is all of the above and the resulting narrative suffers because the audience is flip-flopping in a sea of sweltering stories without a lifeboat or a visible horizon. The movie is as long as the Mughal rule and there is simply no anchor to immerse the viewer into the stories coupled with shoddy editing, it left this viewer worn. Jodha Akbar is proof that an exceptional period movie needs to tell a story or a set of cohesive, well-tied stories with a flowing narrative. Instead of transforming us into the surrealism of another era one feels like they are watching professionals play a game of costumed dress-up.
A big budget can buy you Bollywood beaus and beauties but you just can’t pull exceptional ratings without telling a great story when the movie is an epic. Jodha Akbar has bling power for your theater bucks with an empty bang; it is proof positive that style without substance, at least in the genre of a historic fictional movies leaves the viewer worn and purposeless.
