Jodhaa Akbar

Back after a long time. Was busy with a number of things for the past 3 months. Trimester, Placements, marriages of 2 cousins and my only brother and the usual load of lazyness that i am endowed with. Got placed with Infosys as a Business Analyst on Jan 31.

Now,back to the content of this post.

Watched Jodhaa Akbar today at Chandan,Juhu. After Lagaan and Swades, I was dissappointed watching JA from Ashutosh Gowariker.

Good things first.

Hrithik and Aishwarya have lived their roles as Akbar and Jodha. While watching history, we tend to assume the actors with the roles they play, if they play it well.Krishna is Nitish Bharadwaj, Shakuni is Gufi Paintal for me even when i read Mahabharat, from the DD serial on Mahabharat of sunday afternoons in the 1990s. Akbar will defenitely be Hrithik Roshan in my history books.

The movie seems to have been made to show how visually appealing and artistic AG can make a period movie. A lot of effort has gone into building the sets and bringing to life the Mughal architecture and the war scenes. The art direction is greatly complemented by great camera work and editing during the fight sequences.

Words need not be wasted in describing how good ARR has done in his forte involving a lot of Sufi music. Khwaja meri khwaja and Jashn-e-bahaara are my favourites of the lot.

But all these good things are not enough to keep one riveted for over 3 and half hours. The movie becomes drab after a point becoming more like a chronicle of Akbar's life and achievements. The movie involves a lot of Urdu which went over my head. Subtitles in English/Hindi would have helped me.

Its unfair to compare someone's subsequent works with their magnum opus. But still, JA din't give me anything close to what i felt after watching Lagaan and Swades