Jodha-Akbar Movie Review

Behold another golden Friday! The day of dreams, laughter, tears, blood and galore. It’s a new week and the day of display of another one of the strokes on the canvas of the silver screen by our dear artists of Bollywood. Today the grandeur and magnificence of Bollywood has been displayed. Nevre before has the pomposity of cinema been showcased in such a austere manner. The simplicity of the grandeur and the unimaginably blandness of colors faded into oblivion before the majestic grandeur of Jodha and Akbar.

The beauty of the film lies not in the beautifully crafted scenes or the cinematography nor does it lie in the colorful costumes or in the grand sets or action packed performances but in the grandness of Akbar and Jodha  etched into the minds of us Indians. It is the perception of the viewers that has to be toyed with to make a successful period film if not a movie in general. Akbar, in general terms happens to be one of the greatest rulers of our country. But the most important thing that people forget about him is that Akbar also brought a cultural and ideological revolution in the country. He was the first Mughal or even perhaps the first Muslim ruler whom the people accepted as their own. All the Muslim rulers before him had been conquerors and invaders but here in Akbar the Indians found their own first Muslim emperor and still his legacy continues with our darlings like APJ Kalam, Shah Rukh Khan, Irfan Pathan etc. The Muslim thread that he wove in the Hindu dominated Indian fabric gave such beauty to our culture and country that it surpasses the beauty of every monument etched in stone.

So does the simple fact of Akbar make this movie on absolutely breathtaking experience or is it something else. Akbar’s phenomenal contribution to our society does help but the brilliance of the filmmakers cannot be ignored.

The plot is simply fabulous. It was promoted as a unique and untold love story between an emperor and his wife. A little odd for our taste though. It seems quite extraordinary that the land of sages and chastity has always reveled in the idea of the male protagonist serenading his female lead and ultimately getting married. But why do we forget that this is also the land of Ram-Sita and arranged marriages where love blooms after marriage. It is this very simple yet beautiful concept which has been portrayed in the movie. It is amazing that when two people are thrown together, they learn to love each other with their fallacies and pitfalls. And this movie offers us just that. It is also astonishing that you get in this movie exactly what was offered. (Dear ol’ hindi cinema- promises something and gives something else) The movie sends across a beautiful message that be it a king or a pauper after all he is a human, and a human needs to be loved. The very simple fact that Akbar tries to woo his wife as a human yet upholding the dignity of his Sultunate and his kingdom is so simply beautiful. The very idea of upholding one’s dignity is what Jodha (Ash) also portrays magnificently. Her simple demands as to keep her religion and rights to worship speak volumes of the depths of woman’s heart.

It is sad to see when people create furor over such trivial things as this movie degrades a particular community or it reduces the woman as a pawn in the hands of men wielding power of their lives to broker peace. But why don’t we look at it from a different perspective. This movie is totally into the new catchword “Women Empowerment”. However redundant this word maybe but the women swear by it. Why don’t we realize that a mere woman made an Emperor of a country sign a peace accord with a Rana in equal terms. Why don’t we see that this movie upholds her right to freedom of religion and worship in a setting where kingdoms were formed on a religion and religion on kingdom.

The majestic aroma of this movie lies in a simple fact that neither Akbar nor anybody else has been portrayed as a epitome of anything. Akbar was a human being like just everybody else. He had his own sets of pangs of anger, jealously, happiness and frustration. But what sets him apart is the choices that he makes and the movie by the way these choices have been shown. His acceptance of Jodha’s demands and chastity, his decision to have Mahamnaga’s son killed and then her removal as his chief counselor or even going into war with his brother-in-law and then not killing him because he was his sister’s husband have all been shown wonderfully plainly.

Aah! The movie can make you go on and on over. Its simple yet beautiful instances, the trance that an emperor goes in acknowledging that there is an Almighty one and humbly accepting his overlordship or the straight-backed Jodha whom Akbar recognizes in midst of many veiled females or Todarmal who is so into the system that he cannot believe that Jaziya was wrong.

But what strikes out to me is our absolute love with physical beauty. It is not just about acting. But think about it would we have accepted this movie if it had a dwarf actor with superior acting skills. No! It is Hrithik’s overall personality and china like beauty of Aishwarya that mesmerizes us. It makes the characters have a feeling of unattainibilty to us which leaves us with a sense of longing. The rest has been painted beautifully well. It is like a melodious symphony come to life.

Rest what can I say like the film makers I too need time to talk about this movie.

Murder of Innocence

Something I wrote pained by the turn of events at a particular time.

In this lovely beautiful bright life moments come which fills it with darkness. It makes one lose faith in all goodness of life. No matter how saintly lives you lead or no matter how many good deeds you do what matters is- How you reacted when things were ugly? There are people who react in a certain way and there are people who react in a certain other way. there are people who walk with the flock and some choose their own paths; some choose to ignore things and some decide to take the “bull by the horns”.

A lot of people who would speculate as to one set of reaction is correct or the other one. It depends on the perspective of a person as to how one feels about a situation and the people react accordingly. This, no matter, is the most natural thing. This is something that sets us apart from other creations of nature. Our beauty does not lie in 2 legs or superior anything, it rather lies in our dissimilarities. No species is so dissimilar in every aspect of word than the human beings. Our ability to be different from one another sets us apart and makes us the most magnificent creation of all. So reactions as long as are governed by perception and thoughts are alright. Our different actions and reactions balance this society. Out of this chaos of dissimilar reactions there always emerges out a pattern which in every way strives for the betterment of the situations.

Problems arise when our reactions are swayed by a certain section of a society, the intelligentsia or even the more dangerous is when economics decides our course of action. And when both these factors come together- no matter how good their intentions- things start messing up and the situations take an ugly turn.

History has always been a witness that wars fought on ideas are well received that wars fought on economics. Take for example Ramayan or Mahabharat- these were based onideas and people remember them as epics and even the opposition or the proverbial bad side is always shown respect when being mentioned. Even the Second World War was started with an idea- no matter how flawed it maybe – but as soon as economics got involved in it we had Jewish genocide and Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Think about Iraq- Saddam Hussein could have been disposed off pretty easily or things could have been better there through many ways but the economics of oil forced an entire nation to stand in the brink of Stone Age. Grameen bank of Bangladesh operated with an idea of helping poor become self sufficient and now today is the biggest conglomerate of that nation. Rockefellers, Bill Gates and even why not Osama bin Laden- all these people had an idea and economics followed the.

So it is pretty clear the idea is right the situation will be in hand and surely economics will follow.

But today times have changed. People are living in the age of fast food. We want everything served to us extra quick. Perseverance, toil are words which we seem to have forgotten. We forget that these are necessary prerequisites of success. Human emotions, honour, dignity have taken a backseat.

Today economics decides our course of actions. We look at every thing with weights and balances. Everything today is weighed today in the balances of wealth. Relations, love, somebody’s emotions and dignity have become money spinners to us.

For centuries now our country has boasted of being the beacon of civilization. We call ourselves as the upholders of moral values. Our nation claims to be on  an altogether different plane of civilization where so called Ram-Rajya rules. How hollow our claims are? We have reduced ourselves to a hot air balloon and nothing else. The rampant savagery, insensitivity and selfishness is visible in our society in the ugliest of forms.

Maybe I would have become a loathsome creature to you for bemoaning my culture and society. But my heart weeps to see men and women restoring to such petty measures for what- money and entertainment!!??

Take for example the Aarushi murder case. It is by far the most sensational murder cases in our country. Isn’t the use of word “sensational” shameful enough for us? I mean how can a murder be sensational? It has to be eye raising or tragic or I think there are appropriate enough words in English to describe it far better than this.

A girl gets murdered and alongwith her, the servant of the family is also killed.  Think about it honestly, the thought that comes into your mind or the first so called angle of cause of murder is honor killing because of their clandestine affair.

Why are we not stabbed by a sudden blow of sadness first? Why is our first reaction not pain for a girl who had dreams in her life? Why do we not grieve for an individual that its dissimilarity was a beautiful entity of this world? No matter whatever maybe the cause of the murder why do we not moan for a sudden untimely death of an individual?

People talk about the right of justice of the victim. The killer or the wrongdoers should be brought to justice. Fair enough, that’s the least we can do for the person who has been wronged so grievously. But does the right to dignity of the person dead mean nothing to us. We all have secrets in our life or we even have some unpleasant things that we want to keep hidden as bones in our closet. None of us want to be remembered by the mistakes that we committed. But just because the person is not there to defend himself or herself we lay that persons life out in the open for the other people to see. If that is not wrong then we also have people with god knows what background commenting and airing their opinions about others lives.

Since when did we become so perfect that we have started pointing fingers at other people’s lives.

People who do not know who their father was or maybe with whom they slept last night suddenly become apostles of piousness and tell the world how wrong the person deceased was.

We live in a world where opinions are formed from advertising. Public sentiment and mood forces us to change our views. So with all the media spotlight in this particular case are we sure to say that the judge won’t be swayed by this. Will he not think twice in taking a decision which the so-called telly viewers do not appreciate? Won’t he have a jaundiced eye even before the case is brought to him?

And what about the family? Lets for a moment take for granted that the father is the murderer the what about the mother. She lost her only child, her husband and her dignity. She may have weathered the news of her husband killing her daughter under normal (I know it’s abnormal but that Life) circumstances but now- will we let her live with any shred of dignity.

But also if the father is not the murderer then think about the poor man. He has lost his only daughter and if that is not bad enough he is being jeered by the media and being portrayed as his daughter’s murderer. Think about the agony and the pain that the man has to go through.

The media persons also taking a moral viewpoint question as to why Mrs. Talwar is siding with her husband? Or Why is the compounder’s family standing by him?

Dude that’s what families are for! I mean Gandhari knew how wrong her son was but still she gave Duryodhan her blessings, didn’t she? Even Jesus knew that Judas would betray him but syill he loved him. So what’s wrong if families stick together in this hour of crisis?

The there are questions of extramarital affairs.. the man and the lady in question are over forty. They have a right to make choices of their won life no matter how right or wrong. And also it is still to be proved yet.

People forget that they have begun questioning everything before anything has been proved yet.

But disheartens me the most is not how the people have reacted or how the media has covered the whole situation. What saddens is that there is a strong undercurrent of wish and hope amongst everyone that the parents be declared murderers because of their extra marital affair or it maybe lust killing on the part of the part of the compounder in which the domestic help came to the rescue of his master’s daughter and got killed. How can we romanticize a murder of 14 year old girl?

No matter who may have killed her. But is that a bigger crime? Is the murderer a bigger criminal? He or she murdered her just once but the media, television has murdered her innocence every single day every single day after that.

This shows how important an idea is. The sweet girl was killed once but the television has murdered the very idea of her beauty and innocence everyday.

Why does the media forget that it’s job is to present facts in an unbiased manner? Creating opinions, changing mindsets- their catchword- is not their job. It is the job of viewer. Why do you forget Sanjay was also a reporter? He reported everything to Dhritshashtra that he saw absoulutely the way it was. He refrained from making opinions or passing judgements even when he was not in favor of war. He knew it was Dhritshashtra’s job to form an opinion.

But herein again the idea was correct. Sanjay laid down the facts as they were in front of him hoping he would take the correct decision. And he knew that there was a greater authority to rectify the wrong opinion. The Almighty in his case and the judiciary in ours.

So remember that instead of making this tragic incident a soap opera for making money and entertainment (outright disgusting) the idea has to be right.

Idea always comes first, economics follows.