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This one thrills neither historians nor connoisseurs

Recreating history: Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai in Jodhaa Akbar.

Jodhaa Akbar (Hindi)

Director: Ashutosh Gowariker

Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai, Sonu Sood, Poonam Sinha

No man is a chessboard. In each one of us, greys abound. Unless of course, one is watching Ashutosh Gowariker’s Jodhaa Akbar. Here Akbar, arguably the great Mughal emperor, is a paragon of perfection. He does not lose a battle and towers above the rest with his moral stature. Sorry, Akbar needs no brownie points from posterity. Gowariker is a poor student of history. The film is so glaringly deficient in the most obvious of things that you wonder if the director was trying to mock at history. Or is it a deliberate subversion of the truth?

Agreed, there has been a debate, largely avoidable though, whether Jodhaa was Akbar’s wife or daughter-in-law. A common cinemagoer can leave it to historians to thrash it out, but where Gowariker fails miserably – his third film in a little over six years, after Lagaan and Swades – is in attention to elementary details. Relating the untapped romance of the Mughal Emperor and his Rajput wife, the film lacks integrity.

Gowariker takes too many liberties with history in the name of artistic licence. His devout souls at the dargah are all carefully clean-shaven, like those ads for men’s lotions. This in an age and at a place where a beard was the preferred way. And his emperor even does a little jig at the end of a song. Then walks the garden path with the ladylove in another sequence. All this is a throwback to more ordinary romances of commoners. Akbar is not spared any dignity.

So many negatives. Yes, but like life, here too there is a little silver lining. Hrithik Roshan may not fit the stereotypes of Akbar, but he is fine in action. He is a decent actor who manages to look good simply because his counterpart Aishwarya Rai refuses to do even the bare minimum. She is vapid all through, making Hrithik look almost outstanding in comparison. Unfortunately, Gowariker does not invest his hero with too much detail. He comes across as a man who could do no wrong. And we never get to see the human side of the redoubtable man. And Deen-e-Ilahi is non-existent here.

Watch Jodhaa Akbar as a masala entertainer, and you may not be too disappointed despite its poor editing, inordinate length. The big canvas will appeal to some, the cinematography to others as would the song “Jashn-e-bahara hai”.

Looking for a masterpiece of history with the past throbbing with life? You might have to wait till eternity. This one thrills neither the historians nor connoisseurs.

ZIYA US SALAM

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